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CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 


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Creatibe 
^tiunbance 

Cfje  Pjefpcfjologp  of 
mHitv  antr  Plentp 

By 

Bernard  C.  Ruggles 


The  Kennedy  Company 

OAKLAND 


S?i^^<$«<$«$«»$J^t$Jt$>^#t$J?$J?$«<$J^»$«»$«^^^ 


Copyright  1921 
By  BERNARD  C.  RUGGLES 

Oakland,  California 


G 


a.s,i.     cr-^       i  o  o 


Co  Mv  ©erp  jDear  ifrienb 
t^eteran  ^ales^man 


862354 


Jforetoorb 

Ten  years  ago  a  business  friend  gave  me  a  typewritten 
copy  of  The  Twelve  Rules  for  a  Successful  Career,  which 
Marshall  Field  had  defined.  They  are  simple  phrases, 
brief,  direct  and  dignified.  Each  one  is  a  self-evident 
truism.  At  the  same  time  they  constitute  a  profound  phil- 
osophy of  life. 

I  set  them  down  herewith  as  they  came  to  me. 

1.  The  Value  of  Time. 

2.  The  Success  of  Perseverance. 

3.  The  Pleasure  of  Working. 

4.  The  Dignity  of  Simplicity. 

5.  The  Worth  of  Character 

6.  The  Power  of  Kindness. 

7.  The  Influence  of  Example 

8.  The  Obligation  of  Duty. 

9.  The  Wisdom  of  Economy 

10.  The  Virtue  of  Patience. 

11.  The  Improvement  of  Talent. 

12.  The  Joy  of  Originating. 

These  statements  have  been  in  my  mind  these  many 
years.  I  have  applied  them  to  my  own  business.  Still  more, 
I  have  gained  a  deep  insight  into  the  psychology  of  them. 
Their  development  and  use  in  the  great  field  of  mental 
science  has  finally  created  a  well  thought  out  and  success- 
fully applied  philosophy.  So  a  book  based  upon  these 
twelve  rules  has  been  the  inevitable  result. 

In  the  writing  of  this  book  I  have  purposely  avoided 
all  technical  terminology.  An  advanced  student  of  psy- 
chology, yet  I  have  seen  the  wisdom  of  giving  my  knowledge 


in  this  field  as  it  applies  here,  in  the  simple,  plain,  unvar- 
nished English.  A  deep  student  of  metaphysics,  I  have 
refrained  from  the  particular  phraseology  of  this  entrancing 
field.  I  am  thinking  of  men  and  women  of  all  shades  of 
thought  and  opinion,  who  should  enjoy  and  profit  by  a 
method  of  every  day  living  which  has  opened  up  immeas- 
urable satisfaction  to  me. 

So  I  send  this  forth  into  the  world,  that  it  may  lead  men 
and  women  out  of  bondage  into  the  joy  and  freedom  of  true 
self-expression.  If  the  lessons  herein  given  shall  do  one- 
tenth  the  good  that  I  have  gained  in  producing  them,  I  shall 
feel  that  my  urge  to  give  forth  this  working  philosophy  shall 
not  be  in  vain. 

In  the  new  phrasing  which  I  have  given  these  state- 
ments, in  the  twelve  chapters  of  the  book,  I  have  modern- 
ized the  expression.  Also  the  titles  tend  to  suggest  to  the 
reader  the  far-reaching  wisdom,  the  depth  of  philosophy 
which  those  original  terms  have  in  them.  In  calling  this 
book  Creative  Abundance,  I  have  named  it  according  to  the 
way  the  personal  application  of  these  twelve  keys  has 
opened  up  the  doors  of  opportunity,  of  ability,  and  of  plenty. 

In  perusing  the  chapters  of  this  book,  I  beg  the  reader 
to  constantly  realize  that  he  is  reading,  not  theory,  but  prac- 
tical and  successful  application.  If  each  one  who  studies 
the  book  will  also  master  the  principles  set  forth,  in  his 
own  life  and  expression  of  himself,  I  promise  that  he,  too, 
will  realize  that  these  chapters  are  indeed  The  Psychology 
of  Ability  and  Plenty. 

The  Author. 


Contents 


CHAPTER   ONE 

The  Time  Element Page  13 

Its  Psychology. 

CHAPTER   TWO 

Successful  Plodding Page  21 

CHAPTER   three 

Peptomism Page  27 

What  it  is  and  how  to  have  it. 

chapter  four 

Specialism Page  33 

A  coined  word  and  what  it  will  coin  for  you. 

CHAPTER   FIVE 

Your  Biggest  Asset -      Page  39 

How  to  figure  in  yourself. 

CHAPTER  SIX 

Personal  Magnetism Page  45 

The  one  way  to  develop  it. 

CHAPTER   seven 

Unconscious  Influence Page  51 

A  study  in  telepathy. 


CHAPTER   EIGHT 


Duty-Plus Page  59 

A  clue  to  self-mastery. 


CHAPTER   NINE 


Unearned  Increment Page  65 

The  surplus  from  a  Divine  use  of  what  you  have. 


CHAPTER   TEN 


Velvet  Souls Page  75 

The  expression  of  a  successful  serenity. 


CHAPTER   ELEVEN 


Hidden  Energies Page  83 

How  to  tap  your  talents. 


chapter  twelve 


The  Secret  of  Originality Page  89 

The  Magic  Key  to  Ability  and  Plenty. 


CHAPTER' Or^E  '" 

tlTfje  i;ime  Clement 

APOLEON  won  his  battles  on  the  turn  of  the 
quarter  hours.  The  wisdom  which  he  revealed 
in  the  use  of  a  few  minutes  of  time  is  the  key 
to  victory  in  the  struggle  of  any  individual.  In 
^  the  accumulated  power  of  moments  of  time  lies 
the  secret  of  all  great  achievement. 

The  time  element  in  life  has  a  wonderful  psychology. 
It  deals  with  a  type  of  mental  reactions.  There  is  a  char- 
acter analysis  which  comes  from  observing  the  way  in  which 
individuals  use  spare  moments.  A  history  of  the  idle  hours 
of  average  folk  would  be  as  interesting  as  the  stories  we  get 
of  the  notables  and  how  they  play.  The  way  in  which  they 
react  to  spare  time  is  a  great  clew  to  their  characters  as  you 
may  learn. 

Before  we  can  gain  any  ability  we  must  know  how  to  use 
our  shining  hours.  Given  the  right  perspective  and  gaining 
poise  with  relation  to  time  and  we  can  find  the  secret  to  any 
gift  which  man  possesses.  We  probably  credit  as  innate 
genius  what  has  only  been  uncommon  canniness  in  saving 
and  using  golden  moments.  It  has  been  given  some  men 
to  know  how  "to  dream  and  not  make  dreams  their  master." 
Also  how  to  bend  their  talents  to  the  stern  demands  of  time 
and  not  be  slaves.  It  is  in  this  happy  adjustment  of  the 
time  element  that  great  careers  have  been  fashioned. 

The  first  essential  in  life  is  to  realize  the  timelessness  of 
what  we  call  time.  Any  man  who  goes  through  his  days 
under  the  feeling  of  the  Hebrew  Psalmist  that  our  years  are 
three  score  and  ten  or  if  by  reason  of  strength  they  be  four 
score  yet  they  are  full  of  labor  and  sorrow,  will  get  just  that. 
He  will  whip  himself  through  the  hours  like  a  galley  slave. 
He   will   be   forever   borrowino;   sorrow   from   the  morrow. 


14  CREApiVE  ABUNDANCE 

Always?  i)9f^>r3  birniwll  b^  the  feeling  that  life  is  full  of 
pressing  cares  and  there  is  scarce  time  to  compass  them. 

Such  a  man's  life  will  be  like  the  Irishman  frantically 
slapping  the  paint  on  the  side  of  a  house.  A  friend  coming 
along  said:  "Why  the  wild  rush,  Pat?"  "Begorra,"  said 
Pat  "and  I  want  to  get  the  house  done  before  the  paint  runs 
out."  Life  is  the  house  and  time  is  the  bucket  of  paint.  A 
limited  concept  with  relation  to  both  will  never  finish  any- 
thing in  life  with  any  degree  of  satisfaction. 

The  first  satisfaction  in  life  is  to  be  able  to  give  yourself 
the  sense  of  leisure.  If  you  can  feel  with  Emerson.  "I  am 
the  owner  of  the  sphere,  of  the  seven  stars  and  the  solar 
year,"  you  give  yourself  the  sense  of  power  to  perfect  an 
ability  in  you.  Just  the  lazy,  lengthening  days  of  sunmier 
bring  fruit  to  maturity  because  nature  has  the  sense  of 
infinite  leisure,  so  you  can  mature  your  fruits  of  mind  and 
soul  only  as  you  submit  to  the  same  spirit. 

It  is  indeed  a  very  good  thing  to  be  like  the  English 
tourists  whom  a  friend  of  mine  encountered  in  Manitoba, 
Canada.  There  was  only  one  train  a  day  in  that  section 
and  they  were  leisurely  moving  to  take  it  from  the  hotel, 
although  it  was  ready  at  the  station.  Suddenly  one  of  them 
set  down  his  grip  and  said,  "Look,  the  bally  thing's  a 
moving!"  Whereupon  the  other  drawled,  "Well,  why 
should  we  care?  We  don't  own  it."  They  had  all  of  the 
time  there  was  and  they  did  not  let  the  mere  loss  of  a  train 
disturb  their  sense  of  leisure. 

If  a  day  or  two  does  slip  by  in  which  you  have  not  lived 
to  the  schedule,  what  should  you  care;  you  don't  own  time. 
Neither  let  time  own  you.  Know  that  you  belong  to  the 
aeons  of  Infinite  Being.  Feel  like  God  does,  that  a  thousand 
years  is  but  as  a  watch  in  the  night.  Likewise  that  a  day 
is  your  guest,  to  be  given  the  best  possible  expression.  A 
guest  feels  the  best  when  set  most  at  ease.     So  treat  your 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 15 

days.  The  highest  satisfaction  is  here.  You  will  learn  to 
link  your  life  with  the  ceaseless  cycles.  You  will  know  that 
time  is  just  a  sample  of  Eternity.  You  could  never  enjoy 
Eternity  until  you  can  encompass  the  moments  of  time  with 
satisfaction.  In  short,  Eternity  can  never  be  until  time  can 
express  through  you  easily,  beautifully  and  completely. 

The  second  essential  is  to  fill  "each  unforgiving  minute 
with  sixty  seconds'  worth  of  distance  run."  In  other  words 
while  not  under  dominion  to  time,  yet  to  feel  some  definite 
gain  out  of  the  moments  as  they  pass.  This  simply  insures 
us  against  any  possible  outcome  such  as  a  dyspeptic  writer 
called  the  evil  days,  when  you  should  say,  "I  have  no 
pleasure  in  them." 

It  is  right  here  that  the  truest  psychology  of  the  indi- 
vidual unfolds.  If  I  can  know  how  a  person  regards  the 
idle  moments,  whether  or  not  they  kill  time  or  fill  time,  I 
can  give  you  the  first  characteristic.  Many  other  interesting 
traits  will  flow  out  of  the  dancing  hours. 

Employers  are  now  able  to  measure  the  ability  of 
employees  by  these  traits.  There  are  many  institutions  of 
large  affairs,  where  great  responsibility  is  demanded  and 
ultimately  great  prizes  fall,  that  have  a  method  of  putting 
prospectives  under  observation.  There  are  unique  and  also 
matter  of  fact  experiments  which  come  to  these.  All  are 
psychologically  observed.  The  way  the  individual  reacts 
to  a  given  moment  is  part  of  a  subtle  analysis  now  reduced 
to  a  science.  It  is  all  in  the  field  of  psycho-analysis,  and 
yet  a  student  of  this  phase  of  psychology  does  not  know 
the  details  of  it.  It  cannot  be  given  publicity.  Its  power 
lies  in  its  secret  use. 

Here  is  one  way  a  business  expert  observed  two  men: 
Two  young  salesmen,  mere  youngsters  in  the  commercial 
game,  were  waiting  for  a  train.  One  went  over  to  a  news 
counter  and  bought  an  evening  paper.     He  turned  straight 


16  CREATIVE  ABUNDANC/. 

to  the  sporting  page.  For  the  next  fifteen  minutes  he  read 
nothing  but  sports.  This  done,  he  yawned  wearily,  pulled 
his  hat  down  over  his  eyes  and  dozed.  The  other  fellow 
sat  alert  for  a  few  moments — then  opened  his  suit  case  and 
pulled  out  a  neat  little  volume.  It  was  noted  and  the  title 
secured  by  a  subterfuge.  It  was  on  Commercial  Efficiency. 
That  finished  the  analysis  right  there  as  far  as  those  two 
fellows  were  concerned.     It  was  easy  to  pick  the  winner. 

Analyze  yourself.  How  do  you  react  to  the  idle  time 
which  street  cars  or  trains  or  ferries  force  upon  you?  It  is 
not  a  matter  of  deliberately  dividing  off  each  moment  of 
this  unused  time.  Do  not  be  tyrannized  into  an  enforced 
routine  of  such  and  such  reading  at  this  spare  time  and 
such  at  that.  I  know  of  one  man  who  used  a  certain  waste 
time  for  manicuring  his  finger  nails,  another  for  so  many 
pages  of  Emerson  or  some  cultural  channel,  and  so  he 
charted  his  time  and  enslaved  himself.  He  took  no  time 
for  reflective  moods — to  dream  and  drift  in  the  uncharted 
sea  of  beautiful  imagination. 

The  wise  man  will  find  that  a  schedule  for  unoccupied 
time  is  not  essential.  He  will  find  that  the  philosophic 
attitude  is  vital.  He  will  leave  the  business  of  the  day  on 
the  desk  or  out  of  mind  long  enough  to  give  his  mind  its 
great  rebound.  He  will  put  the  unemployed  time  to  some 
happy,  beautiful  or  useful  end.  He  will  vary  the  order. 
He  will  play  some  of  the  time.  He  will  play  purposefully 
but  not  deliberately.  Queed,  in  Harrison's  novel  by  that 
name,  made  a  scheduled  automaton  of  himself.  One  has 
many  a  laugh  at  this  absurd,  methodical  little  egoist.  And 
one  will  become  laughing  stock  who  so  Quixotically  fashions 
time.  Be  human — not  machine-like,  but  regard  time  as 
only  pleasurable  as  it  yields  a  definite,  pleasurable  satisfac- 
tion— cultural,  physical,  or  spiritual. 

In  the  psychology  of  time — you  have  certain  definite 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 17 

elements — these   compose   the   key   to   the  values   which   it 
holds. 

I.  First  there  is  the  value  of  patience.  The  fever  for 
quick  returns  is  in  the  blood.  We  are  constantly  feeding 
those  twin  imposters  who  masquerade  as  superior  to  time. 
I  mean  Hurry  and  Worry.  Until  we  can  cope  with  them 
and  make  them  powerless  in  the  fruition  of  good  results, 
we  shall  be  a  shoddy,  superficial  race.  In  fact,  we  will 
continue  to  be  regarded  as  a  race  of  neurotics.  We  may 
glory  in  quantity  production  but  never  in  quality  pro- 
duction. 

Emerson,  in  his  essay  on  English  traits,  says:  "This 
highly-destined  race,  if  it  had  not  somewhere  added  the 
chamber  of  patience  to  its  brain,  would  not  have  built 
London.  I  know  not  from  which  of  the  tribes  and  tempera- 
ments that  went  to  the  composition  of  the  people  this  tenacity 
was  supplied,  but  they  clinch  every  nail  they  drive.  They 
have  no  running  for  luck  and  no  immoderate  speed.  They 
spend  largely  on  their  fabric,  and  await  the  slow  return. 
Their  leather  lies  tanning  seven  years  in  the  vat.  At  Roger's 
Mills  in  Sheffield,  where  I  was  shown  the  process  of  making 
a  razor  and  a  penknife,  I  was  told  there  was  no  luck  in 
making  good  steel,  that  they  make  no  mistake,  every  blade 
in  the  hundred  and  in  the  thousand  is  good.  That  is  charac- 
teristic of  all  their  work — no  more  is  attempted  than  is 
done." 

There  is  no  surer  power  of  victory  than  in  the  patient 
use  of  time.  You  can  figure  your  assets  as  certain.  The 
man  worth  while  is  the  man  who  can  use  the  while  with  a 
smile.     He  will  come  into  his  own.     An  old  Yankee  said: 

"There  are  some  things  besides  eggs  that  if  you  set  on 
them  long  enough  they  will  hatch." 

n.  The  time  element  must  be  regarded  as  opportunity 
for  observation.     Every  idle  moment  is  big  with  meaning. 


18  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

There  is  an  education  for  the  eye  at  every  angle.  You  can 
observe  the  activity  of  others.  The  way  in  which  men  do 
their  work  is  in  itself  a  course  in  psychology.  Study  the 
technic  of  efficiency.  Compare  action  with  probable  motive. 
By  watching  a  man  take  off  a  tire  and  change  a  tube,  I 
learned  in  an  idle  hour  the  lesson  of  my  own  need  when  I 
had  to  change  a  tire.  With  no  previous  instruction  except 
what  came  through  observation,  I  was  able  to  repeat  the 
process  with  assurance. 

In  your  rest  hours  study  the  stars,  catch  the  changing 
colors  of  sunset,  note  the  delicate  leaf  traceries  and  picturize 
the  shadows  and  the  swift  changing  clouds.  As  you  are 
upon  street  cars  and  trains,  without  impertinent  stare,  but 
with  sly  observation,  note  the  social  actions  of  people.  See 
how  they  treat  each  other.  Mark  the  true  gentleman  or 
lady.  Study  their  use  of  time.  Thus  by  example  through 
eye  training  a  great  mass  of  wisdom  will  come. 

I  have  read  of  a  girl  without  any  education  to  speak 
about,  who  gained  broad  culture  through  observation.  She 
studied  different  neighborhoods  and  gained  social  science. 
She  went  window  shopping  and  developed  aesthetic  taste. 
She  browsed  in  book  stores  and  gained  the  first  key  to 
love  of  books  by  acquaintance  with  them.  She  found  a 
hundred  ways  to  a  free  education,  and  she  gained  it.  We 
need  not  go  mooning  through  our  idle  moments.  We  had 
best  keep  our  eyes  open  and  be  entertained  and  educated 
by  what  we  can  see.  The  amount  we  can  thus  learn  to 
observe  in  a  moment  is  the  surest  test  of  concentrated  power. 
You  cannot  possibly  estimate  what  this  ability  is  worth 
to  you. 

III.  The  supreme  fact  is  to  preserve  a  sense  of  propor- 
tion. Into  a  wise  diversion  of  time  the  highest  skill  can 
always  go.  The  most  efficient  people  are  so  because  they 
know  how  to  use  time  in  an  effective  ratio. 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  19 

The  sweet  by  and  by  spirit  will  never  help  you.  The 
beautiful  here  and  now  is  the  song  of  achievement.  Into 
moments  of  time  as  they  arrive  there  must  be  poured  the 
attention  which  they  deserve.  The  waste  of  time  in  profit- 
less pleasure  is  the  saddest  word  of  tongue  or  pen.  There 
are  times  to  let  go,  but  never  time  to  be  a  vacuum.  If  this  is 
done,  you  will  find  it  increasingly  easy  to  be  empty.  If  you 
cannot  enjoy  time  profitably,  you  will  find  eternal  life  an 
eternal  torment. 

As  one  grows  in  appreciation  of  moments  of  time  and 
fills  them  with  something  worth  while,  they  will  find  life 
becoming  increasingly  attractive.  Each  hour  will  hold  its 
wonder  and  its  enjoyment  as  an  instrument  of  mental  and 
spiritual  growth. 

There  is  nothing  which  can  better  or  more  completely 
express  this  supreme  principle  as  this  translation  from  the 
Sanskrit — The  Salutation  of  the  Dawn: 

Listen  to  the  exhortation  of  the  Dawn! 
Look  to  this  Day! 
For  it  is  life,  the  very  life  of  life. 
In  its  brief  course  lie  all  the  verities 
And  realities  of  your  existence. 
The  glory  of  action, 
The  bliss  of  growth, 
The  splendor  of  beauty — 
For  yesterday  is  but  a  dream, 
And  tomorrow  is  only  a  vision, 

But  today  well   lived   makes  every   yesterday   a   dream 
of  happiness. 
And  every  tomorrow  a  vision  of  hope. 
Look  well,  therefore,  to  this  day! 
Such  is  the  Salutation  of  the  Dawn. 


CHAPTER  TWO 

ESOP  gave  us  the  familiar  fable  of  the  race 
between  a  tortoise  and  a  hare.  At  the  finish 
the  slow -moving  tortoise  was  the  winner.  B'rer 
Rabbit  indulged  in  so  many  side  issues,  as- 
^  sured  of  his  power  to  win,  that  he  lost  sight  of 
his  objective.  Mr.  Tortoise  was  very  thick  and  got  only 
one  idea  at  a  time  through  his  shell.  He  knew  there  was 
a  race  and  a  goal  to  win,  and  he  gave  himself  to  the  winning. 
He  had  a  single  track  mind  and  he  proved  the  power  of 
one  idea  held  with  firmness.  He  is  a  good  example  of  a 
type  of  persistency  which  is  commendable.  He  proved  the 
value  of  plodding. 

There  is  a  psychology  of  intelligent  persistency.  Every- 
one needs  to  realize  it,  to  see  the  elements  of  it  and  how  to 
use  these  elements  successfully. 

I  do  not  expect  to  see  the  average  man  of  average  ability, 
who  will  not  plod,  succeed  in  even  the  average  fashion 
or  in  a  large  way.  The  measure  of  his  success  will  depend 
on  the  way  he  takes  the  plodding  and  makes  it.  Too  often 
we  submit  to  the  routine  of  the  same  thing  over  and  over 
again  as  an  irksome  necessity.  We  reduce  a  job  to  slavery 
and  our  life  to  that  of  a  drone  or  a  drudge.  This  is  a  com- 
mon failing.  But  no  success  will  ever  come  by  merely 
sticking  to  a  thing  with  dogggedness  when  there  is  not  satis- 
faction in  the  daily  repetition. 

Rowland  Sill  sensed  the  psychology  of  the  average  man 
when  he  wrote  these  lines: 

"Forenoon  and  afternoon  and  night 
The  weary  song  repeats  itself — 
What,  no  more?     Age,  that  is  life." 


22  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

Just  the  repetition  of  the  daily  activity  with  the  time 
element  is  what  we  all  face.  He  couched  the  solution  of 
it  in  these  terms:  to  make  the  forenoon  a  song,  the  afternoon 
a  psalm,  the  night  a  prayer,  and  you  will  conquer  time 
and  win  your  crown  of  life. 

In  the  letters  of  Gustave  Flaubert,  the  noted  French 
writer  of  an  exquisite  style  of  composition,  he  confesses 
to  the  power  of  a  persistent  devotion  to  composition.  He 
troubled  himself  little  about  moments  of  inspiration,  the 
waiting  for  which  he  felt  was  a  cause  of  sterility.  He 
believed  in  working  along  until  a  ray  of  the  heavenly 
light  came.  To  a  friend  he  wrote:  "Neglect  nothing. 
Labor !  Do  the  thing  over  again,  and  don't  leave  a  task  until 
you  feel  convinced  you  have  brought  it  to  the  last  point  of 
perfection  possible  for  you.  In  these  days  genius  is  not 
rare.  But  what  no  one  has  now,  what  we  should  try  to 
have,  is  the  conscience  of  one's  work." 

In  these  words  Flaubert  leads  up  for  us  to  the  psychology 
of  persistency.  Analyzed  into  its  mental  elements,  and  I 
find  these  facts  will  produce  a  plodding  which  will  be 
successful  and  satisfactory. 

First,  there  is  the  element  of  conscience.  Personally,  I 
am  sure  of  the  value  of  this.  I  am  boss  of  my  own  time. 
I  have  the  right  to  use  all  of  my  time  as  I  personally 
desire,  but  I  have  a  most  sensitive  conscience  of  my  work. 
I  feel  under  the  conviction  of  rendering  a  definite  amount 
of  service.  Somehow  the  "Well  done,  good  and  faithful 
servant"  only  comes  as  a  peaceful  satisfaction  as  I  feel  a 
day  well  filled  with  activity." 

The  same  element  enters  into  every  occupation.  If  you 
can  feel  the  conscience  of  your  work,  that  your  task  is  the 
thing  to  which  you  wish  to  be  sensitively  faithful,  you  will 
find  the  importance  of  it  growing  upon  you. 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  23 

Magnify  to  yourself  the  importance  of  your  work.  No 
task  is  small,  only  the  person  that  fills  a  place  can  be 
small.  A  task  meanly  done  reflects  not  the  labor,  but  the 
laborer.  We  forget  that  fact.  The  business  to  which  you 
choose  to  give  the  routine  of  your  best  activity  is  a  mirror 
reflecting  to  the  world  the  sort  of  a  body  that  you  are.  The 
character  of  an  individual  shines  through  his  task.  That 
is  why  Emerson  spoke  of  the  fact  that  a  better  mouse  trap 
will  catch  not  only  mice  but  men.  They  will  be  drawn 
by  the  superiority  which  comes  out  of  intelligent  plodding 
and  so  of  perfecting. 

Many  people  diff'er  as  to  the  value  of  inspiration  or  of 
technique.  I  knew  two  exceptional  dramatic  readers.  One 
was  the  master  of  technique,  the  other  was  obedient  to  the 
inspiration.  They  never  agreed  as  to  presentation.  One 
always  claimed  the  picture  in  words  should  be  given 
dramatic  expression  as  the  mood  of  the  hour.  After  seeing 
them  both  in  operation  for  a  length  of  time,  I  found  out 
that  sometimes  the  mood  failed,  but  the  technique  never 
did.  And  often  the  situation  in  a  drama  was  saved  because 
the  plodder  had  learned  a  way  which  always  got  over.  He 
was  not  the  flashlight  of  genius — he  was  the  unfailing  light 
of  patient  perfecting  of  his  art. 

Conscience  of  one's  work  will  lift  any  task  into  ever 
increasing  value,  and  that  value  reflects  upon  the  worker. 
You  will  never  find  any  mental  magic  which  will  transform 
your  place  in  a  moment.  But  as  you  expand,  the  niche  you 
fill  also  expands.  Or  you  burst  it  open  and  get  out  like  the 
chick  out  of  the  shell.  There  is  nothing  which  can  keep  a 
man  of  conscience  in  creative  activity  from  his  own.  He 
has  made  himself  in  terms  of  sincerity,  unrestrained  and 
ungrudging  service,  and  if  he  is  faithful,  he  will  find  his 
reward  as  Flaubert  found  his.  Today  this  Frenchman  is  a 
model  of  literary  style  in  French  letters. 


24  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

Conscience  in  work  is  the  essence  of  divine  satisfaction. 
It  makes  one  feel  as  God  felt  when  He  fashioned  this  world. 
He  looked  upon  it  and  pronounced  it  good.  When  you  are 
a  workman  needing  never  to  be  ashamed,  you  have  made 
good. 

II.  The  element  of  enjoyment  is  to  be  found  in  success- 
ful plodding.  No  man  can  have  a  success  which  he  will 
enjoy  after  he  gets  it  unless  he  enjoys  getting  it.  Half  of 
satisfaction  in  any  achievement  is  reminiscence.  The  de- 
lights of  a  fine  trip  are  the  remembered  moments  of  it. 
Every  soldier  fights  his  battles  over  with  greater  zest.  Many 
a  man  of  great  action  enjoys  preparing  his  autobiography. 
Life  has  its  chief  pleasure  in  relating  how  it  came  to  pass. 

So  many  people  imagine  that  it  is  enough  to  turn  the 
crank  from  day  to  day,  to  do  the  same  old  thing  in  the  same 
old  way.  There  is  a  penalty  prepared  for  sodden  and 
sombre  work.  It  is  the  inability  to  enjoy  the  unusual  when 
it  comes  along.  If  you  cannot  find  joy  in  the  routine  you 
will  never  find  it  in  the  hour  of  greater  achievement.  Keep 
your  zest  for  the  job.  If  it  seems  stale,  season  it  with  a  bit 
of  song,  a  highborn  dream,  a  noble  thought.  Gild  the 
edges  and  frame  your  work  as  a  masterpiece  in  God's 
gallery  of  Patient  Plodders. 

Great  is  the  power  of  enthusiasm.  It  glorifies  every  dull 
day.  It  gives  the  prosaic  a  new  slant.  It  dresses  up  the 
commonplace  and  illumines  it.  After  all,  your  work  will 
reflex  upon  you  as  you  reflex  on  it.  If  you  can  find  zest 
in  it,  it  becomes  a  place  of  desirable  aspects  to  others. 

Read  again  that  classic  bit  of  humor  by  Mark  Twain  of 
how  Tom  Sawyer  whitewashed  the  fence^a  detested,  fun- 
thwarting  job,  yet  he  put  enthusiasm  to  the  task.  He  made 
it  an  envious  thing.  The  artistry  that  he  exhibited,  the 
superior  skill  he  assumed  finally  brought  all  his  playmates, 
each  beseeching  a  hand  at  the  brush. 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  25 

If  you  can  put  the  enthusiasm  into  the  plodding,  it  will 
soon  prove  to  be  a  thing  of  joy  to  all  who  regard  it. 

Don't  petrify  the  feelings.  Refuse  to  allow  the  dullness 
of  duty  to  be  ever  so  spoken  of.  Make  of  tomorrow  an 
action  fine,  give  your  position  the  vision  splendid,  and 
put  the  lilt  of  a  song  into  the  labor. 

Tommy  is  a  merry  lad  next  door.  I  was  manipulating 
the  washing  machine.  Finally  Tommy  said:  "My,  but  you 
get  a  lot  of  fun  out  of  work.  You  sing  and  whistle  as  if 
you  liked  it.  It  would  make  me  sick  to  have  to  do  it." 
I  told  Tommy  that  any  job  was  fun  if  you  took  it  right. 
God  gave  you  joy.  A  bird  has  to  hustle  hard  in  the  same 
old  way  every  day  for  food.  But  he  sings  as  he  begins  and 
he  twitters  as  he  settles  down  to  rest.  Consider  the  birds 
and  be  wise.  Give  your  Job  the  joy-cure.  See  what  a 
healthy,  man-sized  thing  it  becomes.  Study  it  as  an  im- 
provable affair. 


CHAPTER  THREE 

F  I  should  write  the  two  words,  pep  and  opti- 
mism, upon  a  blackboard,  you  would  see  how 
they  can  be  fused  into  one  new  word,  "pepto- 
mism."  So  you  understand  that  peptomism 
means  putting  "pep"  into  optimism.  There  is 
no  more  vital  word  for  our  times  than  this  new  one  which 
has  been  coined.  It  covers  a  world  of  possible  ability  and 
power. 

Optimism  is  a  much  misused  word.  It  has  lost  its 
virility  through  association  with  the  wrong  sort  of  people. 
Any  Sunny  Jim  can  pass  for  an  optimist.  We  only  ask  for 
a  two-cent  grin  and  we  call  it  optimism.  But  the  original 
force  of  the  word  must  be  retained.  We  redeem  it  when 
we  make  it  mean  something  big,  brave  and  hopeful.  We 
give  it  vitality  and  lift  it  into  dignity  and  worth.  Better 
still,  we  add  "pep"  to  it  and  let  it  have  a  new  and  larger  use. 
Peptomism  is  a  word  with  a  wealth  of  meaning.  It  is 
not  enough  to  know  the  derivation  of  a  word.  Its  scope  and 
its  potentialities  are  most  important.  Here  you  will  find 
the  psychology  of  the  right  attitude  to  your  work  and  the 
way  to  increase  your  powers  of  enjoyment  and  achievement. 
This  will  enlarge  your  consciousness  and  give  you  a  diviner 
perspective.  Things  can  no  longer  look  small,  mean  or 
contemptible  in  your  scope  of  action. 

What  you  are  and  do  is  qualified  by  your  mental  atti- 
tude. When  you  change  your  viewpoint,  get  a  new  slant 
on  things  which  you  constantly  face,  life  takes  on  a  more 
joyous  aspect.  When  you  look  at  a  Cubist  or  Futurist 
painting,  you  wonder  how  on  earth  any  one  could  see 
things  that  way.     Well,  they  do,  and  artists  assure  us  the 


28  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

picture  is  the  result  of  a  certain  angle  of  vision.  That  is 
what  peptomism  does  for  you — it  gives  you  a  new  mental 
angle  and  a  spiritual  vision  to  meet  your  world  and  your 
work  in  a  larger  way. 

1.  A  peptomist  is  one  who  not  only  sees  a  bright  side 
but  cheerfully  rolls  up  his  sleeves  and  gets  busy  helping 
God  to  bring  a  brighter  day.  Your  social  pessimist  will 
tell  you  what  a  mess  the  world  is  in  He  is  worried,  learn- 
edly worried.  But  a  peptomist  will  courageously  meet  the 
trying  ordeals  and  work  until  he  sees  improvement  come 
smiling  through.  He  senses  God  at  work  in  the  scheme  of 
things  and  so  lends  his  best  skill  as  a  co-laborer  with  God. 

I  have  faith  that  we  will  wobble  along.  I  do  not  believe 
with  a  University  of  Chicago  professor  that  "our  demented 
world  may  have  no  future."  The  world  is  not  crazy — it  is 
only  groping  in  a  dim  mental  condition.  The  mass  mind  is 
dazed  and  hazy  as  yet.  But  the  world  is  to  have  a  future, 
a  nobler  future.  Every  crisis  always  brings  a  full  crop  of 
wise  pessimists.  Better  an  inane  optimism  than  a  hopeless 
pessimism.  Better  still  to  feed  a  budding  hopefulness  which 
stirs  one  to  get  busy  and  better  the  little  world  in  which 
one  lives.    That  is  the  first  step  toward  peptomism. 

So  I  am  going  to  take  the  gravity  of  things  in  our  world 
as  a  peptomist.  I  will  start  with  faith,  courage,  wisdom  and 
a  soul-deep  smile.  I  will  put  myself  in  the  Divine  Work- 
shop and  be  about  the  All-Father's  business  of  bettering 
the  world.  Chiefly  that  bettering  will  go  on  inside  of  me. 
Since  that  is  God's  Workshop,  I  am  helping  Him,  as  I  am 
"a  workman  that  needeth  not  be  ashamed,  handling  skill- 
fully the  Truth  of  Life,"  which  is,  that  good  is,  because  God 
is.  I  shall  laugh  and  sing  as  I  work  and  plan  I  shall 
encourage  and  cheer  as  I  lift  and  redeem.  I  shall  keep 
bright  and  sweet  as  I  face  hard  problems  and  grave  situa- 
tions.    Then   I   will   be   a   peptomist,   at   work   with   God; 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  29 

serene,  hopeful  and  constructive,  building  in  thought  and 
dream,  the  Kingdom  of  The  Better  Day. 

I  will  become  a  divine  asset  when  I  do  this.  And  he 
who  is  valuable  to  God  is  thrice  so  to  man.  So  it  pays  to 
be  a  peptomist.  It  gives  you  a  healthy-minded  attitude  to 
the  world  and  it  furnishes  you  with  greater  creative  powers 
to  bless  life.  A  world  without  a  goal  of  increasing  good- 
ness will  never  give  you  comfort,  peace  or  joy.  Unless  I 
knew  that  the  world  would  wag  on  and  right  itself,  just  as  it 
has  done  before,  I  would  not  dare  to  smile.  But  it  will 
come  right  and  I  have  a  cheerful  desire  to  help  God  to 
harmonize  it.  And  just  this  spirit  will  put  the  sinews  into 
me  for  any  aspect  of  life.  I  shall  not  worry  about  the  world. 
If  there  is  any  to  be  done,  I  will  leave  it  to  the  Creator. 
He  made  it  and  He  knows  how  it  will  end.  He  called  it 
good  to  start  with  and  His  last  word  will  be  the  same.  He 
has  the  plans.  Therefore  I  shall  laugh  and  love  and  lift. 
And  that  is  what  peptomism  means  to  you  in  any  dark  hour 
of  the  world's  life. 

2.  Bring  it  close  to  your  own  life.  What  do  you  need 
most  of  all?  Is  it  not  that  you  wish  to  keep  life  fresh  and 
your  work  full  of  zest?  We  do  not  wish  to  go  stale.  There 
is  no  agony  so  great  as  the  ennui  which  uncongenial  work 
can  bring.  Many  people  are  in  this  state.  A  galley  slave 
could  not  be  more  pitied.  Yet  the  ease  of  escape  from  this 
condition  is  considered  foolishness  by  many.  If  you  should 
say,  "Be  a  peptomist,"  to  the  average  victim  of  a  distasteful 
work  you  would  be  considered  mentally  unsound.  Say  it  in 
your  own  way  when  you  have  tried  the  system. 

There  is  not  an  alluring  job  in  the  world  which  does  not 
have  its  drawbacks.  A  hero  in  a  novel  who  had  a  throne 
wished  upon  him  came  to  the  time  when  he  said:  "This 
king  business  isn't  what  it  is  cracked  up  to  be."  I  have 
myself  what  one  could  term  an  ideal  work  in  the  world. 


30  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

I  have  a  fine  range  of  variety.  It  offers  so  much  of  fresh 
and  original  expression.  Yet  did  I  so  permit  it,  the  element 
of  staleness  and  ennui  could  creep  in  and  I  could  easily 
envy  some  other  evidently  attractive  labor.  To  my  task  in 
its  stale  hour  I  bring  "peptomism."  Then  a  change  becomes 
evident  and  a  new  zest  carries  me  forward. 

There  is  an  art  of  enthusing  yourself.  That  is,  you  must 
learn  to  sell  your  job  to  yourself,  over  and  over  again. 
Here  is  a  great  exercise  in  psychology.  Detach  yourself  or 
rather  divide  yourself.  Then  let  this  active  side  of  yourself 
put  forth  all  the  attractions  of  this  position.  In  this  play 
you  will  find  enthusiasm  growing.  The  horizon  of  the  task 
widens.  It  takes  on  greater  importance.  You  feel  a  new 
zest  for  it  creeping  in.  Then  before  you  know  it,  the  love 
of  your  work  will  burst  full  upon  you  and  you  take  the 
position  as  if  it  was  a  new  one. 

Again  and  again  I  have  done  this.  Then  I  have  gone 
further.  I  have  felt  its  relation  to  the  Divine  Plan.  I  have 
come  to  feel  that  the  work  must  be  expanded,  and  so  my 
consciousness  of  its  scope  has  brought  me  a  new  vision. 
Thus  every  time  you  slacken,  you  can  picture  yourself  into 
joy  and  power  again. 

In  a  book,  The  Harbor,  the  author  gives  you  a  great 
clew.  He  pictures  himself  as  hating  the  harbor,  the  source 
of  his  livelihood.  Then  one  day  he  goes  up  into  a  great 
city  engineer's  office,  in  the  top  of  one  of  the  tallest  build- 
ings. From  it  the  full  panorama  of  the  harbor  is  unfolded. 
Distance  lends  it  enchantment.  Then  the  vision  of  the  great 
engineer  comes  in.  He  pictures  the  improvements  to  be 
made,  so  that  this  harbor  shall  be  the  first  port  of  the 
world.  He  shows  the  ships  of  the  world  docking  there,  the 
ease  with  which  they  load  and  unload — the  efficiency,  the 
smoothness  with  which  commerce  will  move.  And  when  this 
lad  goes  back  to  the  harbor,  after  that  ideal  hour,  it  is  no 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 31 

longer  a  dingy,  foul  and  ugly  thing.  He  brings  the  beauty 
of  the  dreamer  who  is  a  doer — the  peptomist — down  to  the 
piers  and  docks,  and  begins  his  work  there  with  a  vision 
splendid  in  his  soul. 

That  is  life.  Your  life  is  a  harbor  from  which  duties 
done  go  forth  and  obligations  come  in.  Shall  it  become  to 
you  a  sordid  thing?  Shall  duties  find  execution  dull  and 
hard?  Shall  obligations  be  given  scant  attention?  If  this 
mood  comes,  or  when  it  comes,  detach  yourself.  Get  away 
from  it.  Go  up  with  the  dreamer  into  a  high  place.  See  it 
anew,  in  a  dim  perspective.  Every  one  comes  back  from  a 
real  vacation  with  a  zest  for  their  work.  They  have  had  a 
chance  to  see  it  further  removed.  So  the  aspects  which 
had  taken  on  distasteful  outlines  were  blotted  out.  That  is 
part  of  peptomism.  You  get  a  new  hopefulness  for  your 
work  and  then  you  come  back  to  it  with  a  laugh  and  a  song. 

Still  further  you  must  relate  it  to  The  Great  Plan.  You 
must  see  it  as  co-ordinated  to  a  vast  mechanism.  Study  a 
piece  of  very  intricate  machinery.  You  will  find  how  very 
important  a  pin  bolt  can  be  to  the  whole  operation.  It 
cannot  function  fully  until  the  smallest  part  is  in  working 
order.  And  you  have  been  abusing  your  job!  You  have 
been  giving  it  contempt,  neglect  and  scant  action.  Then 
you  wonder  why  the  world  is  askew!  Did  you  ever  realize 
that  Divine  Intelligence  has  organized  life  through  man? 
You  have  a  pin  bolt  job?  Ah,  but  the  flywheel  of  high 
finance  cannot  turn  without  you.  All  the  processes  of  pro- 
duction wait  on  you.  God  planned  a  big  place  in  life  and 
you  only  saw  the  size  of  the  pin  bolt.  That  is  the  way  to 
talk  to  yourself.  After  you  get  through,  you  will  go  back 
to  your  position  with  a  knowing  smile. 

Peptomism  does  not  jolly  you  into  contentment  with 
injustice  or  unfairness,  if  these  are  existing  in  your  work. 
It  simply  keeps  you  sweet  and  steady  and  gives  you  the  clue 


32  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

to  a  way  out.  How  does  it  do  this?  Simply  by  keeping  your 
window  bright  and  clean.  Smoked  glass  is  all  right  for 
looking  at  the  sun  or  to  soften  its  reflected  glare.  But  it  was 
not  meant  for  your  life.  The  pure  in  heart  see  God.  The 
mind  is  a  window.  The  clearest  thinking  brings  God  near- 
est. It  also  brings  the  truth  of  life  closer.  It  reveals 
things  as  they  are.  Injustice  and  unfairness  are  found,  if 
there.  But  more  is  found:  aspects  of  life  unusued,  big 
enough  when  developed  to  overcome  these  things  which 
rankle.  When  you  get  big  enough,  large  minded  enough, 
petty  things  cannot  affect  you.  Instead,  you  affect  them. 
You  wipe  them  out,  cheerfully  and  resolutely. 

Peptomism  is  just  the  joy  that  a  man  can  put  in  and 
take  out  of  the  hardest  job,  the  most  trying  situation.  The 
measure  of  a  man  is  found  in  the  amount  of  joy  he  incor- 
porates and  extracts.  And  this  quality  is  the  superiority  of 
life.  Super-men  are  simply  superior  men.  Superior  men 
are  those  who  can  smile  and  work  along  when  everything 
goes  dead  wrong.  It  is  not  the  work  but  the  spirit  which 
counts.  A  king  can  never  be  royal  until  he  can  be  bigger 
in  spirit  than  any  subject.  You  are  a  peptomist  when  you 
put  joyous  superiority  into  a  trying  situation.  And  there 
is  kingship  ahead. 


CHAPTER  FOUR 


pttiali^m 

|HERE  was  once  a  man  who  said:  "One  thing  I 
know."  That  man  was  both  very  narrow  and 
very  broad.  He  specialized  on  one  thing  and 
then  had  sense  enough  to  let  everything  else  be 
grist  for  his  mill.  Akin  to  him  was  another 
man  in  Bible  times  who  said:  "One  thing  I  know,  whereas 
I  was  blind,  now  I  see."  That  man  was  a  beggar  whom 
Jesus  had  healed.  In  answer  to  the  Master's  critics,  who 
were  trying  to  incriminate  Him,  the  beggar  made  this 
answer.  He  had  gained,  not  only  eyesight,  but  also  the 
greater  gift  of  insight.  We  all  have  a  sight,  a  gift.  One 
thing  we  do  know,  but  when  we  can  add  insight,  we  get 
a  broad  aspect  of  a  narrow  field. 

Specialism  has  its  value  only  as  this  happens.  It  is  a 
noble  narrowness  when  it  leads  us  to  gain  the  widest  possible 
knowledge  of  a  particular  field.  You  cannot  master  every 
man's  business,  but  you  can  know  what  he  does  and  how 
he  does  it.  We  get  our  broadest  education  by  exchange 
of  ideas.  Everyman  is  your  teacher.  He  sheds  a  peculiar 
sidelight  on  your  own  problem.  He  furnishes  you  fresh 
inspiration  to  do  your  work.  The  danger  in  specialism  is 
an  ignoble  narrowness  which  comes  from  not  listening. 
When  you  are  sure  you  know  it  all,  why  should  you  give  any 
attention  to  a  new  idea?  Where  ignorance  is  bliss,  there 
is  nothing  new  which  can  win  a  look.  The  ostrich  is  hidden 
when  his  head  is  in  the  sand.  Why  should  one  see  who  is 
willing  to  be  blind.  "If  the  light  in  thee  be  darkness,  how 
great  is  that  darkness." 

The  supreme  ideal  of  specialism  is  to  know  life.  No 
man  carries  his  specializing  too  far  who  devotes  himself 
to  this  simplest  yet  most  profound  fact  in  the  universe:  the 


34  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

reach  of  wisdom  from  the  simple  cell  to  the  complex  human. 
"The  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man."  It  does  not  matter 
what  is  your  particular  field,  the  one  source  of  success  lies 
in  knowing  life,  in  its  completeness  of  personal  manifesta- 
tion and  social  expression.  Or  in  the  words  of  that  remark- 
able Southern  business  man,  Fuller  E.  Callaway,  "You've 
got  to  understand  psychology  and  human  nature.  All 
through  there  has  been  less  horse  sense  in  getting  human 
beings  to  work  than  there  has  been  in  handling  animals. 
When  you  have  a  pedigreed  cow  you  know  you  have  got  to 
feed  her  well  and  treat  her  fairly.  You  can't  expect  four 
gallons  of  milk  if  you  kick  the  cow.  If  you  are  working 
with  cows  you  even  have  to  think  like  cows.  If  you  are 
working  with  men  you've  got  to  think  like  them.  And  you 
must  never  expect  them  to  do  anything  that  isn't  human." 
To  first  specialize  on  human  nature,  then,  is  to  know  hovr 
to  relate  your  work  to  life.  Add  to  this  a  mental  analysis 
of  your  relation  to  your  labor  and  you  will  have  the 
psychology  of  skill. 

It  is  the  first  business  of  every  individual  to  know  him- 
self. Hindu  yogis,  seeking  for  the  end  of  all  wisdom, 
found  the  secret  of  knowing  in  their  dictum:  "Know  thy- 
self." This  is  our  most  difficult  job.  Many  of  us  delegate 
it  to  another,  to  a  mental  analyst.  But  no  one  can  dig 
or  probe  as  deep  as  you  who  know  all  of  the  secret  things 
of  your  inmost  being.  How  they  affect  your  life  and  relate 
to  your  work  is  at  once  the  aim  and  end  of  all  your  living. 

The  difficulties  of  knowing  one's  self  lie  in  the  contradic- 
tions and  inconsistencies  which  crop  out.  There  are  times 
when  we  cannot  account  for  ourselves  any  more  than  our 
friends  can.  Now  the  one  general  weakness  in  the  attempt 
to  know  self  is  our  temptation  to  always  emphasize  our  one 
general  weakness  to  ourselves.  We  will  specialize  on  our 
failings  and  then  wonder  why  we  fail.     No  man  ever  can 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  35 

understand  his  inconsistencies,  but  he  ought  to  emphasize 
to  himself  his  consistencies.     Let  me  illustrate: 

A  steamboat  was  at  New  Orleans  and  a  man  applied  for 
the  vacant  post  of  pilot,  saying  he  thought  he  could  give 
satisfaction  if  they  were  looking  for  "a  man  about  his  size 
and  build."  "Your  size  and  build  will  do  well  enough," 
said  the  owner,  surveying  the  lank  form  of  the  applicant 
with  some  amusement,  "but  do  you  know  about  the  river, 
where  the  snags  are,  and  so  on?"  "Well,  I'm  pretty  well 
acquainted  with  the  river,"  drawled  the  Yankee,  with  his 
eyes  fixed  on  the  stick  he  was  whittling,  "but  when  you 
come  to  talking  about  snags,  I  don't  know  exactly  where 
they  are,  I  must  say."  "Don't  know  where  the  snags  are!" 
said  the  owner  in  disgust;  "then  how  do  you  expect  to  gel 
a  position  as  a  pilot  on  this  river?"  "Well,  sir,"  said  the 
Yankee,  giving  the  owner  a  keen  pair  of  eyes  and  a  whim- 
sical smile,  "I  may  not  know  where  the  snags  are,  but  you 
can  bet  your  bottom  dollar  I  know  where  they  ain't,  and 
that's  where  I  calculate  to  do  my  sailin'." 

It  is  no  different  with  the  life  stream.  If  you  aim  to 
sail  along  where  the  inconsistencies  don't  crop  up,  you  will 
have  gained  the  first  lesson  in  knowing  self. 

This  search  for  self-knowledge  brings  out  the  fact  that 
if  we  cannot  explain  our  actions  sometimes,  neither  can  we 
credit  our  abilities.  There  are  periods  when  the  divmest 
power  wells  forth  from  out  of  a  barren  stretch  of  effort. 
A  writer's  pen  will  drop  heavenly  wisdom,  a  musician  will 
be  touched  by  the  angels  of  St.  Cecilia  and  the  morning 
stars  will  sing  a  symphony  to  his  soul.  That  which  is 
immortal  in  beauty  and  power  has  cropped  out  of  the 
common  devotion  to  some  solitary  task.  Strange  to  many 
also  is  the  fact  that  this  divine  consciousness  is  not  retained 
through  extended  periods.  We  all  know  how  we  trudge 
through  deserts  of  the  commonplace  and  that  these  sky-born 
outbursts  are  as  an  oasis  in  the  order  of  our  ways. 


36  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

But  today  we  do  know  the  service  of  these  sudden  out- 
croppings  and  the  psychology  of  them  adds  the  knowledge 
of  skill  to  our  special  task. 

Back  of  our  conscious  mental  life  we  sense  a  reservoir 
of  rich  powers.  George  McDonald  has  a  book  called  Sir 
Gibbie,  dealing  with  a  wonderful  little  city  waif  who  sought 
the  freedom  of  the  country.  He  hid  in  a  hayrick  by  day 
for  a  time  and  in  the  earliest  morning  hours  used  to  steal 
out  and  perform  the  duties  of  kitchen  and  barn  to  the 
consternation  of  the  maid  and  the  chore  boy.  They  were 
sure  that  some  fairy  was  ministering  to  them.  And  he 
proved  even  more  wonderful  when  they  had  discovered  him 
for  what  he  was.  So  we  have  this  hitherto  unpublished 
self  stealing  forth  by  night  to  control  our  bodies  in  sleep 
and  to  carry  forward  our  activities  and  functions.  By  day, 
it  carefully  stores  up  the  incidents  and  impressions  of  our 
conscious  life,  and  from  out  this  treasure  house  at  times 
delivering  the  expressions  or  interpretation  of  these  in  the 
form  of  ideas  or  abilities.  You  all  know  this  for  what  we 
call  it  now,  our  subconscious  mental  life. 

To  know  how  to  impress  this  life,  how  to  train  it  and 
how  to  make  it  serve  your  special  gift  is  the  secret  of  skill 
and  excellence.  I  have  personally  so  far  trained  myself  that 
I  do  all  my  work  within  this  formative  source  of  ability. 
I  here  develop  lectures,  prepare  articles,  sense  how  to  deal 
with  individuals  in  the  social  contact  of  business  or  religion. 
By  constant  emphasis  and  reliance  I  can  even  let  it  control 
my  actions  in  crisis  hours,  as  when  walking  in  congested 
places  or  driving  a  car  in  trying  situations.  It  becomes  the 
errand  boy,  the  policeman,  the  author,  composer  and  all 
things  for  the  one  particular  thing  I  know  and  do. 

How  to  understand  this  self  and  to  develop  it  I  will  deal 
in  a  later  chapter,  "Hidden  Energies  and  How  to  Tap 
Them."     This  hints  of  one  phase  of  self-knowledge  which 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  37 

contributes  largely  to  your  skill  in  your  labor.  When 
we  shall  know  this  inner  self  better,  we  shall  know  our 
abilities  better. 

The  way  opens  through  knowledge  of  the  conscious  self. 
What  we  call  the  objective  mind  in  psychology — ^the  part 
which  thinks  aloud — is  the  source  of  our  subconscious 
education.  It  is  here  that  we  see  how  we  are  educated  by 
contact.  A  man  with  a  highly  specialized  field  of  work 
will  often  have  little  by  way  of  established  knowledge  to 
guide  him.  In  his  research  and  progress  he  must  bring  it 
out  for  himself.  His  conscious  mind  needs  contact  with  the 
widest  field  of  contributory  information.  For  instance,  this 
lesson  on  Specialism  is  restricted  in  my  own  consciousness 
to  the  fact  that  I  am  a  specialist.  One  thing  I  know.  How 
shall  I  furnish  inspiration  to  the  subject  and  give  it  a  com- 
prehensive treatment?  By  recalling  every  specialist  I  have 
known  and  how  he  worked.  By  reading  the  wide  range  of 
literature  upon  specialization.  It  is  thus  that  I  consciously 
experience  the  breadth  of  my  theme.  Then  I  leave  this 
mass  of  food  to  be  digested  and  prepared  subjectively. 
When  needed  it  will  come  forth  in  conclusions  and  in  logical 
sequence,  as  it  is  demanded. 

By  repeated  conscious  demand  I  am  able  to  draw  out 
the  material  for  a  specialized  field.  So  it  is  that  I  shall 
furnish  new  angles  of  approach  to  everyman  with  a  problem 
or  a  position  to  better.  Most  of  the  important  contributions 
to  the  sciences  have  come  from  men  who  have  made  original 
research.  It  has  often  been  done  by  the  urge,  indefinable 
yet  inescapable,  which  has  pushed  men  out  of  beaten  paths 
of  professional  procedure.  The  silent  and  insistent  demand 
to  find  the  thing  felt  or  sought  has  opened  a  new  world. 

Just  now  Thomas  A.  Edison  proposes  to  do  away  with 
all  established  methods  of  spirit  communication.  He  will 
develop  an  instrument  or  process  in  his  own  way  without 
reference  to  any  accepted  system  of  seeking  to  contact  with 


38  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

those  who  have  passed  on.    His  method  is  exactly  the  ideal 
for  the  gaining  of  new  knowledge. 

Carry  this  into  your  own  work.  If  you  feel  or  see 
possible  improvement,  make  that  a  conscious  assertion. 
Feed  your  mind  upon  every  vitalizing  thing  which  will  seem 
of  value  in  your  direction.  By  this  constant,  conscious 
expression  of  a  better  way  and  a  wider  knowledge,  some 
day  you  will  step  out,  a  specialist  of  specialists,  in  your 
field  of  action. 


m 


CHAPTER  FIVE 

§our  Piggesit  ^gget 

HE  Great  Teacher  drew  a  striking  lesson  from 
His  story  of  the  man  who  was  figuring  up  his 
assets.  He  figured  that  he  did  not  have  room 
for  all  of  his  goods.  At  this  juncture  a  divine 
voice  said  to  him — probably  the  Angel  of 
Death,  "Thou  foolish  one,  this  night  is  thy  soul  required 
of  thee.  What  are  all  of  these  goods  to  thee  now?"  And 
the  Teacher  said  "So  it  is  with  all  who,  in  figuring  up  their 
assets,  leave  out  God  and  do  not  see  that  God  in  the  soul  is 
the  biggest  asset." 

This  parable  vividly  reveals  one  of  the  twelve  great 
phases  of  these  lessons — "The  Worth  of  Character."  Upon 
this  foundation  every  business  in  life  must  be  built  if  it  is 
to  endure.  It  has  been  my  privilege  to  know  many  men 
who  could  borrow  all  the  money  they  needed  at  the  banks 
without  collateral  security.  Their  biggest  asset  was  their 
personal  character.  In  fact,  I  happened  to  be  the  son  of 
one  such  individual.  And  my  father's  favorite  motto  has 
been,  "I  have  not  lived  to  see  the  righteous  forsaken." 
Always  he  has  proved  that  character  was  the  best  collateral. 

John  Milton  tells  us,  "There  is  nothing  that  makes  men 
rioh  and  strong  but  that  which  they  carry  inside  of  them. 
Wealth  is  of  the  heart,  not  of  the  hand."  We  can  go  a  step 
farther  and  say  that  wealth  of  the  heart  rightly  expressed 
will  insure  wealth  of  the  hand.  An  analysis  of  the  traits 
which  will  make  character  your  oiggest  asset  are  both  essen- 
tial and  vital.  Character  works  with  or  without  consent, 
but  how  it  may  work  to  definitely  secure  and  safeguard  your 
material  well-being  is  the  thing  worth  knowing.  Your 
personal  worth  lists  certain  securities. 


40  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

I.  First  of  these  are  aspirations  and  ideals.  The  secret 
of  all  great  and  true  men  is  found  in  their  vision  hours. 
Across  the  interval  of  the  years  they  have  built  a  pontoon 
bridge  toward  the  castle  of  their  dreams.  They  have  selected 
the  material  with  care,  they  have  measured  their  spans  of 
effort  in  terms  of  conscience.  Always  within  themselves  the 
superior  souls  find  their  material.  From  here  they  have 
drawn  the  patience  and  the  skill  to  fashion  a  sure  way  to 
the  higher  things. 

Dr.  Hillis  portrays  the  great  aspiration  which  came  to 
John  Milton — a  boy  of  twelve,  waking  at  midnight  in  his 
bleak  garret.  Before  him  rose  the  dream  of  writing  a  poem 
which  the  world  would  not  ever  allow  to  die.  He  knew 
whoever  wrote  such  a  poem  must  live  a  life  of  imperishable 
power.  From  that  hour  the  youth  followed  the  ideal  that 
led  him  on.  He  studied  unceasingly,  leaving  Cambridge 
beloved  of  all  the  good  and  without  stain  or  spot  upon  his 
life.  He  went  to  Italy  for  further  culture.  Hearing  of  the 
civil  wars  in  England,  he  put  aside  his  ambition  for  the  time 
and  returned  to  share  in  the  struggle  for  liberty.  When  he 
resisted  a  brutal  soldier's  attack,  who  said,  "I  have  power 
to  kill  you,"  the  scholar  replied,  "And  I  have  power  to  be 
killed,  and  to  forever  make  my  murderer  miserable."  Age 
came,  and  with  it  blindness,  but  out  of  it  came  the  immortal 
poem,  "Paradise  Lost  and  Paradise  Regained."  Dying,  he 
held  to  his  ideal,  moving  into  the  valley  of  the  shadow, 
whispering,  "Still  guides  the  heavenly  vision." 

Here  is  the  secret  of  all  achievement.  In  the  measure 
that  you  aspire  and  dream  and  measure  up  to  your  ideals 
and  aspirations,  shall  it  come  forth.  Never  yet  has  a 
worthy  thing  come  from  the  unworthy.  The  good  man  will 
produce  a  good  thing.  The  man  who  successfully  runs 
himself  in  terms  of  mastery  and  integrity  will  find  a  sue- 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  41 

cessful  issue  to  his  venture.     There  is  a  poet  in  my  family 
who  has  said: 

"If  you  know  you  are  great,  you  will  do  great  things; 

Your  thoughts  will  soar  on  eagle's  wings; 

Your  life  will  reach  its  destined  goal, 

If  you  know  the  way  to  set  your  soul." 

It  is  the  sort  of  aspirations  which  you  possess  which  sort 
you  off  to  your  place  in  life.  You  cannot  be  a  low-flying 
soul  unless  your  aspirations  are  earthward.  It  seems  hard 
for  the  average  man  to  find  time  to  aspire.  But  no  man 
ever  dreamed  of  greater  comfort  for  his  family,  the  joy  of 
home  of  his  own,  who  did  not  find  that  the  dream  lightened 
the  task  and  added  joy  to  his  labor. 

Your  mind  is  a  draughting  room.  Upon  the  walls  of 
imagination  you  draw  the  dimensions  of  your  life.  Men 
can  sketch  large  or  small,  dim  or  clear.  A  striking  picture 
cartoon  shows  that  Success  and  Failure  possess  the  same 
number  of  letters.  If  you  have  written  failure,  over  it  you 
can  superimpose,  with  clearer,  bolder  letters,  success. 
Letter  for  letter,  it  will  bring  the  same  amount  of  space. 
You  can  see  then  that  success  and  failure  are  twins.  Kipling 
calls  them  twin  imposters,  and  they  do  become  the  lesser 
factors  when  one  has  come  to  a  greater  development.  When 
this  has  been  given,  we  see  the  success  of  failure  and  the 
failure  of  success. 

Only  the  aspirations  and  dreams  that  fill  out  life  and  give 
it  divine  satisfaction  should  express  a  true  success.  No  man 
who  has  stood  with  integrity  intact,  conscience  inviolate, 
has  every  tasted  a  defeat  that  was  not  a  victory.  When  he 
has  had  his  ideals  to  beckon  on,  each  and  every  obstacle  has 
been  the  happy  intervention  to  test  the  rising  power  of  the 
individual. 

II.     The  force   of  your  character  rests   also  upon  the 


42  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

habitual  attitude  you  let  your  thoughts  take.  You  have 
initial  force  to  send  you  higher  when  you  are  headed  that 
way.  A  rocket  will  do  its  duty  and  ascend,  describe  its 
parabola,  and  send  forth  its  constellation  of  beauty,  when  it 
is  pointed  right.  It  has  all  the  elements  at  hand  with  which 
to  make  its  glory  shine. 

You  are  sure  to  shed  your  radiance  if  you  keep  pointed 
right.  Character  has  given  you  the  qualities  which  shine. 
If  you  point  your  thought  toward  achievement,  there  is 
surety  of  arrival.  The  impetus  here  is  immense.  A  fine, 
clean-spirited  man  equipped  with  the  science  of  right  think- 
ing is  an  invincible  force  in  the  world. 

It  has  been  my  privilege  to  see  several  men  who  had 
been  in  the  ministry  step  out  into  business  and  succeed  in  a 
dazzling  degree.  Why  was  it?  Because  they  had  the  char- 
acter capital  to  start  on,  and  there  was  the  impetus.  They 
added  to  that  a  constructive  mental  attitude.  Their  clean 
life  was  a  sure  foundation.  Then  they  built  a  fortune  as 
they  had  been  building  a  life,  and,  of  course,  they  succeeded. 
And  this  is  the  sure  guarantee  for  any  man. 

Character  is  your  biggest  commodity.  If  a  man  will  add 
to  his  merchandise  the  right  method  of  selling,  he  can 
always  win.  And  that  right  method  is,  first,  the  right 
attitude  in  himself.  I  once  knew  a  man  who  wanted  a 
striking  slogan  with  which  to  sell  a  certain  line  of  fine 
shirts.  He  thought  the  phrase  "We  are  back  of  our  shirts" 
was  a  telling  phrase.  His  publicity  man  replied,  "It  is 
clever,  to  be  sure,  but  you  do  not  have  to  advertise  your 
character,  when  you  have  one."  Again  and  again  I  have 
heard  people  enquire  about  a  merchant  before  his  goods, 
or  heard  him  recommended  because  of  the  man  that  he  was. 

Knowing  the  impetus  which  personal  worth  gives,  you 
can  add  to  your  life  as  you  will,  when  you  think  as  big  of 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 43 

your  business  as  you  wish  it  to  become.  There  is  no  man 
who  can  fail  in  the  world's  sense,  who  has  character  and  a 
big  consciousness.  Faith  in  what  he  is  doing  is  aided  by 
faith  of  others  in  him.  His  vision  inspires  confidence 
because  he  inspires  confidence.  Others  will  willingly  see 
and  believe  in  what  he  believes  in.  So  each  day  holds  its 
income  as  he  lets  his  personal  power  work  through  his 
hopeful  thinking. 

III.  Then  character  brings  the  next  step — ^the  science 
of  living  with  men.  We  often  speak  of  the  point  of  contact. 
It  is  the  easiest  thing  to  contact  with  a  four-square  man, 
for  he  can  be  approached  from  any  side.  It  is  always 
within  our  power  to  live  easily,  smoothly  and  successfully 
with  each  other.  When  we  have  built  along  the  right  ethical 
and  spiritual  lines,  we  become  big  enough  to  look  beyond 
the  follies  and  weaknesses  of  men  to  their  possible  strength 
and  nobility.  We  are  tall  enough  to  overlook  the  prejudices 
and  peculiarities  to  the  agreeabilities  and  harmonies  which 
are  latent.  And  we  can  look  through  their  faults  and  evoke 
good  from  even  the  meanest  and  wickedest  of  men. 

Character  prepares  a  way  for  you  of  deference  and 
respect.  It  opens  fast  closed  doors.  It  knocks  at  the  heart 
of  humanity  and  opens  up  graces  and  arts  untouched  by 
coarser  hands. 

It  lends  a  subtle  influence.  You  may  know  the  art  of 
hypnotism  and  wield  a  magic  power.  You  may  possess  a 
clever  knowledge  of  the  weak  side  of  men  and  know  how 
to  take  the  unfair  advantage.  But  that  sort  of  power  will 
finally  be  the  undoing  of  the  one  who  practices  it.  It  is 
when  integrity  walks  in  the  market  place  that  men  are 
drawn  together.  Such  a  one  controls  and  influences  his 
fellows  with  mighty  power,  but  he  always  leaves  a  blessing 
behind  him  wherever  he  goes. 


CHAPTER  SIX 

pergonal  jUagnetisfm- 
llotu  to  #et  3t 

'N  James  Barrie's  delightful  play,  "What  Every 
Woman  Knows,"  Maggie  Wylie  does  not  have 
good  looks,  but  "juist  charm."  Of  this  quality 
it  is  said,  "If  you  have  it,  you  don't  need  any- 
thing else,  and  without  it,  everything  else  doesn't 

count."     Charm    is    another    name    for    magnetism.     It    is 

charm  in  a  woman  and  magnetism  in  a  man. 

Sometimes  we  speak  of  a  pleasing  personality.  This  is 
still  another  term  which  defines  that  almost  indefinable 
essence  which  is  the  soul's  atmosphere.  It  is  a  tribute  to 
a  plus  of  power  in  a  person  which  proves  that  his  speech 
or  his  learning,  his  culture  and  his  polish,  are  but  a  tithe 
of  the  subtle  spirit  which  wraps  him  about  as  in  a  mantle. 

It  has  been  the  secret  of  all  of  the  leadership  and 
achievement  in  life.  Garibaldi  sent  forth  a  spirit  of  free- 
dom mightier  than  his  words.  He  turned  an  Italian  mob 
into  a  conquering  army.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  does  not 
read  particularly  well  at  this  late  day.  But  in  his  presence 
the  dramatic  power  of  the  man  drew,  fascinated,  conquered. 
Phillips  Brooks  was  even  more  persuasive.  Something  of 
his  atmosphere  lives  on  in  his  books.In  his  pulpit  he  moulded 
by  the  manliness,  the  Christliness,  the  saintliness  of  a  mar- 
velous spirit.  His  words  were  golden,  his  spirit  set  them 
with  diamonds  and  rubies.  And  back  among  the  ancients, 
Socrates.  Of  him  the  dissolute  Alcibiades  said:  "The 
chains  of  passion  which  so  often  enthrall  me  melt  like  snow 
before  the  sun.     I  tear  myself  away  by  force  lest  I  grow  old 


46  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

sitting  by  Socrates'  side."  Thus  everywhere  the  powers  of 
the  inner  man  furnish  the  secrets  of  winsome  and  compel- 
ling personalities.  All  this  is  evidence  of  a  magnetic 
quality  which  overtops  brain,  brawn,  cunning,  and  skill. 

With  many  it  is  innate.  With  others  it  is  necessary  of 
cultivation.  But  none  of  us  may  be  wholly  lacking,  and  if 
we  will  pay  the  price  we  can  possess  and  express  this  power 
which  is  the  key  to  personal  and  social  helpfulness. 

I.  It  first  begins  its  development  through  the  growth 
of  the  spirit  of  love.  A  great  scientist  tells  us  that  love  is 
not  only  the  supreme  human  emotion  but  also  the  one 
positive  force  of  the  universe.  He  says  it  expresses  itself 
in  the  physical  world  under  the  guise  of  adhesion,  cohesion, 
gravitation,  crystallization,  magnetism.  There  you  have  it. 
You  see  that  the  pulling  power  of  the  magnet  is  born  of  a 
force  we  call  electricity.     But  others  call  it  love. 

As  love  grows  in  your  heart,  it  radiates  from  you. 

a.  It  first  shines  through  your  face.  Good  nature 
begins  to  be  evident.  It  reacts  as  a  bright,  warm  day  does 
on  a  fog-bound  country.  That  is  the  first  reaction  of  the 
thought  spirit.  Your  genial  expression  invites,  attracts. 
Then  as  you  gain  in  good  nature,  whether  you  smile  or  not, 
a  pleasant  cast  is  given  to  your  features.  You  send  forth 
more  and  more  charm  from  within. 

To  feed  this  genial  nature,  you  must  get  the  habit  of 
thinking  charitably  and  good  humoredly  of  people.  If  an 
irritating  situation  can  make  you  smile,  it  will  put  oil  on 
the  waters. 

Then  you  must  turn  your  clouds  as  they  come.  The 
habit  of  seeing  silver  linings  tends  to  give  the  mind  a 
pleasant  set.  Thus  each  dark  circumstance  has  a  redeem- 
ing trait  for  you. 

b.  From   you  a  kindly   spirit  will   finally   steal   forth 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  47 

insensibly.  People  will  feel  your  friendliness.  They  will 
know  your  heart  is  full  of  love.  To  gain  this  spirit,  you 
have  kept  it  full.  You  have  had  a  big,  true  sympathy  for 
others.  You  have  fed  a  downright,  whole-souled  interest 
in  them  and  their  lives.  Wherever  you  go  it  will  be  of  you 
as  the  Greek  poet  thought  of  a  certain  goddess  when  she 
came  to  Thebes.  Passing  by  a  tree  blackened  by  a  thun- 
derbolt, she  stayed  her  step  and  lo!  the  woodbine  sprang  up 
and  covered  the  bare  branches.  She  lingered  by  a  stagnant 
pool  and  it  became  a  flowing  spring.  She  rested  upon  a 
fallen  log  and  there  came  moss,  the  snowdrop,  the  anemone, 
to  cover  the  death  and  decay.  At  the  crossing  of  the  brook 
were  her  footprints,  not  in  mud  downward,  but  in  violets 
that  sprang  up  in  her  pathway.  Thus  does  this  kindly  spirit 
react  on  all  the  surroundings. 

The  test  of  this  love  power  will  come  from  little  chil- 
dren. When  it  is  strong  enough  in  you,  they  will  come  to 
you  with  outstretched  arms,  even  though  you  are  a  total 
stranger.  As  it  draws  children's  aff"ection,  it  will  draw 
grov/n-ups'  attention  and  interest.  And  each  gain  in  grace 
will  mean  a  new  unit  of  power.  So  mighty  did  it  become 
in  the  Master  that  His  very  presence  made  bad  men  good. 

II.  For  complete  magnetizing  of  your  life,  you  must 
bring  yourself  in  intimate  contact  with  the  Central  Source 
of  all  power.  Christ  sensed  it  so  fully  that  he  knew  his 
ability  to  draw  all  men  would  flow  out  of  one-ness  of  life 
with  God. 

Somehow  we  seek  so  far  afield  for  what  is  ever  so  near. 
The  bird  seeking  the  glorious  air,  insensible  to  its  life 
there;  the  fish  crying  to  know  the  sea,  while  immersed  there; 
this  is  a  parable  of  our  desire  for  the  magnetic  field,  in 
which  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being. 

When  we  were  experimenting  in  physics  with  electricity, 


48  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

we  learned  how  to  make  a  magnet  by  wrapping  a  coil  of 
insulated  wire  around  an  iron  bar.  Then  by  passing  a 
current  of  electricity  through  it,  we  were  able  to  induce  the 
power  of  attraction.  This  is  an  analogy  of  how  every 
individual  can  wrap  himself  in  the  consciousness  of  an 
All-Pervading  Love.  Through  this  sense  of  Omnipresence 
will  actually  flow  the  current  of  Divine  Life  and  of  a  day, 
a  man,  genial  and  great-hearted  by  his  love-thoughts,  will 
realize  the  magnetic  power  of  his  life. 

The  magnet  was  first  known  as  a  lodestone.  A  black 
rock  formation  was  found  in  Magnesia,  in  Asia  Minor. 
This  was  discovered  as  possessing  magnetic  qualities,  that 
is,  it  had  power  to  attract  certain  mineral  particles.  From 
Magnesia  it  got  the  name  of  Magnet.  Afterwards  men 
found  the  secret  of  making  magnets  easily  and  of  great 
power.  Here  again  the  spiritual  forces  parallel  this  scien- 
tific fact. 

There  was  a  time  when  we  thought  the  magnetic  life 
was  a  peculiar  possession.  We  credited  a  certain  region 
as  the  possessor  of  it.  We  said  it  was  quarried  from  the 
Rock  of  Ages  and  became  the  lodestar  of  Bethlehem. 
Now  we  know  the  secret  of  the  compelling  power  of  the 
Christ  personality.  We  have  discovered  the  way  to  duplicate 
that  Divine  Magnet.  By  bringing  a  small  piece  of  iron  in 
contact  with  a  highly  magnetized  piece,  you  can  very  read- 
ily charge  the  small  piece.  That  is  also  the  method  of 
magnetizing  your  life,  by  constant  contact  with  Omnipotent 
Love  you  will  be  charged  with  power  from  on  high.  As 
often  as  your  piece  of  iron  weakens  in  pulling  power,  as 
often  can  you  re-charge  it.  As  often  as  your  power  to 
attract  your  good  diminishes  so  often  may  you  turn  your 
thought  and  your  faith  unto  God,  the  All  Good,  and  receive 
fresh  impulsions.  This  was  ever  the  method  of  Jesus. 
Each  withdrawal  to  desert  place  or  mountain  top  was  the 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  49 

evidence    of    recharging    of    his    life    with    the    Invincible 
Energy. 

The  supreme  example  of  attraction  and  influence  is  the 
Christ.  Wherever  He  moved  He  drew  men  as  unresistingly 
as  the  Pied  Piper  drew  the  children  of  Hamlin.  It  was  not 
the  power  of  beauty,  compelling  genius  or  magic  craft.  It 
was  a  spirit  like  the  sun,  drawing  the  moisture  from  the 
earth,  the  sea,  the  air,  and  distilling  it  again  in  the  refresh- 
ing rain.  So  the  Son,  illumined  by  "the  Father  of  Lights 
in  whom  is  no  variableness,  neither  shadow  of  turning," 
draws  mind,  heart  and  soul  of  man.  And  we  as  sons  may 
in  turn  grow  like  that  which  we  love. 

Fasten  your  mind  on  just  and  generous  thoughts, 
thoughts  of  good,  not  of  evil,  to  all.  Fasten  your  heart  on 
Love,  a  Love  that  will  feel  assured  of  goodness  and  mercy. 
Fasten  your  soul  on  Truth,  the  Truth  that  your  life  is 
inherently  dynamic  with  power,  potentially  capable  of 
drawing  unto  you  your  good.  Above  all,  fasten  your  faith 
on  Him  who  is  the  Perfection  of  your  possible  power,  and 
know  that  you  can  also  as  you  are  uplifted,  draw  all  men 
to  you. 


CHAPTER  SEVEN 

Wintomtioni  influence 

|NE  of  the  greatest  sources  of  selling  power  in 
the  business  world  is  personality.  The  same 
power  persuades  in  every  other  field  of  activity 
as  well.  There  is  a  persuasion  to  personality 
which  works  with  or  without  consent.  By 
personality  I  mean  the  accepted  definition  of  Webster,  "the 
personal  characteristic  or  quality  of  mind."  Robertson, 
the  great  English  preacher,  defines  it  thus:  "Personality  is 
made  up  of  three  attributes — character,  consciousness,  will." 
The  activity  of  these  attributes,  the  quality  of  character, 
the  intensity  of  consciousness  and  the  fixity  of  will,  make 
up  that  sweep  of  individuality  which  is  immeasurable. 

One  can  take  extensive  courses  in  business  phychology 
or  can  get  a  selling  method  based  upon  a  shrewd  manipula- 
tion of  human  nature.  But  alas!  too  often  the  quality  of 
the  method  does  not  bear  the  test  of  time  or  insure  the  per- 
manent good  will  of  the  victim.  But  personality  persuades 
by  the  force  within  itself.  It  unlocks  energies,  stimulates 
faculties  and  lends  an  irresistible  appeal  to  the  contact. 
History  teems  with  these  lovable  souls  who  have  "sold  their 
idea" — as  the  business  world  puts  it — by  no  other  method 
than  the  quality  of  their  character,  their  reach  of  high 
consciousness. 

There  is  an  incident  in  the  New  Testament  which  is 
very  valuable.  Peter  and  John  came  to  the  tomb  of  Jesus. 
Peter  stooped  and  looked  in  and  saw  the  grave  clothes 
lying.  He  went  in  and  the  unconscious  influence  of  this 
impetuous  Peter  was  so  powerful  that  the  other  disciple 
entered  also  into  the  tomb.  Horace  Bushnell  made  a  great 
message  out  of  that  incident,  the  telling  power  of  your 
personal   influence.      By   it   you   can   sway   kings,   conquer 


52  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

kingdoms,  capture  citadels  of  trade  and  open  doors  hard 
locked  by  iron-ribbed  men.  For  the  gaining  of  this  you 
have  much  to  develop  and  intensify  in  your  inner  nature. 

You  must  keep  the  emotional  content  of  your  life  active 
and  constant.  To  do  this,  intensify  the  humanities.  Few 
men  realize  early  enough  how  much  of  great  value  lies 
in  keeping  the  common  touch.  The  average  man  of  am- 
bition will  first  rely  upon  his  technical  training,  then  upon 
his  natural  ability  and  finally  upon  his  experience.  Very 
often  he  will  be  far  along  in  the  game  of  life  before  he 
will  realize  that  the  biggest  thing  is  sympathetic  touch 
with  humanity.  Agreeability,  the  instinctive  tendency  to 
say  a  kind  word  or  do  a  friendly  deed — these  things,  easy 
of  expression,  are  generators  of  unconscious  influence.  Out 
of  them  grows  a  radiant  personality.  Unknown  and  un- 
sensed  by  us  is  the  kindling  ray  which  our  presence  sheds. 
Wherever  we  go,  without  a  word  spoken,  our  personality 
precedes  us. 

There  is  actual  telepathic  transference.  Long  before 
you  appear  you  are  being  received.  When  you  come  in  the 
flesh,  the  reception  will  be  according  to  the  spirit  of  your 
life.  One  of  the  most  successful  salesmen  whom  I  know 
was  so,  because  he  was  a  great  heart.  Instinctive  with  him 
was  his  genuine  interest  in  the  personal  life  of  his  customers. 
When  on  his  way  to  see  and  sell  one  of  these  he  didn't 
begin  "psychologizing"  himself,  to  be  sure  of  a  good  sale. 
Fact  is,  he  had  little  technical  knowledge  of  this  sort  of 
salesmanship.  He  confessed  to  me  that  he  had  a  natural 
liking  for  his  clients  and  somehow  he  was  thinking  lovingly 
of  them  as  men  rather  than  as  prospects.  And  this  was  not 
a  sales  method,  but  because  he  couldn't  help  it.  In  later 
years  he  often  wondered  why  he  had  been  so  successful  for 
one  who  had  little,  if  any,  knowledge  of  psychology  or 
modern  methods  of  salesmanship.  Let  me  analyze  his 
case  for  you  and  you  will  see  his  secret. 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  53 

There  was  a  telepathic  power  going  forth  from  his 
personality.  A  warm,  glowing  wave,  active  and  positive, 
was  radiating  from  him  and  touching  the  spirit  of  the  man 
he  was  to  interview.  Generally  the  man  greeted  him  with 
a  genial  smile  and  glad  hand  shake  of  real  welcome, 
remarking:  "Fminy  thing,  but  I  have  been  thinking  about 
you  within  the  last  hour  or  so,  although  I  didn't  know 
that  you  were  in  town.  And  out  of  that  contact  in  due 
course  came  a  good  sale.  More  valuable  than  his  training, 
bigger  than  his  ability,  more  effective  than  his  experience 
was  that  salesman's  natural  love  for  humanity.  I  grant 
you  that  he  might  have  added  somewhat  to  his  art  of 
selling  by  a  wider  knowledge.  But  innately  he  had  the 
true  psychologic  approach,  only  he  was  not  aware  of  it 
as  such.  He  was  great  in  his  business  of  life  because  he 
was  so  true  and  genuine  in  his  sympathetic  oneness  with 
men.  He  had  the  consciousness,  that  spiritual  sense  of 
brotherliness  which  makes  for  unity  and  harmony  in  every 
human  relation. 

Before  you  ever  come  into  the  presence  of  another,  you 
have  your  opportunity  to  do  your  work  with  or  for  that 
one.  You  do  not  need  at  first  to  definitely  speak  the  word 
for  adjustment  or  accomplishment  of  a  desired  object.  You 
do  need,  however,  to  get  yourself,  your  emotional  content, 
unified  by  the  feeling  of  love  and  good  will.  A  com- 
passionate spirit  must  possess  you,  the  assurance  that  you 
are  in  loving  oneness  with  any  and  all  men.  Then  on 
wings  of  light  an  influence  has  sped  before  you.  Just  as 
the  sun's  rays  open  the  flower  before  you  come  to  claim 
it,  so  does  your  spirit  of  life  blossom  the  flowers  of  your 
opportunity. 

I  want  every  salesman  who  reads  this  to  become  a 
clever  salesman.  I  desire  every  business  man  and  woman 
whom  this  interests  to  achieve  a  keen  ability.     And   for 


54  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

every  one  in  any  other  business  of  life  these  words  are 
written  with  a  wish  for  their  instruction  and  uplift  to 
planes  of  superior  advantage.  But  I  wish  to  impress  each 
and  every  one  with  the  fact  that  life  is  the  first  and  last 
business,  the  chief  and  sole  commodity.  And  whoever  will 
touch  life,  each  and  every  life  with  sympathy,  with  loving 
thought  and  service,  will  actually  charge  the  whole  being 
with  an  unconscious  influence,  going  forth  to  prepare  a 
warm  welcome  and  a  true  opportunity  for  you. 

To  this  you  must  add  an  awareness  of  your  own  life 
as  supremely  essential  in  its  peculiar  field  of  activity.  It 
is  a  great  thing  to  have  it  said,  "He  is  an  expert  in  his 
line."  Fact  is,  every  one  is  a  potential  expert  in  his  own 
field.  The  one  defect  is  our  failure  to  recognize  the  latent 
capacity.  We  may  not  be  expressing  through  the  right 
channel.  There  are  square  pegs  in  round  holes.  But  all 
are  capable  of  change  when  we  become  more  conscious  of 
our  powers.  Chance  or  luck  often  drops  us  where  we 
belong.  Misfortune  soemtimes  acts  as  a  nieans  of  self- 
discovery.  Sometimes  we  know  where  we  should  function. 
This  is  the  big  problem  of  every  boy  and  girl :  to  find  their 
niche.  It  is  here  that  a  knowledge  of  higher  psychology 
becomes  imperative. 

There  are  men  who  have  gone  so  far  in  their  experi- 
ments along  the  lines  of  vocational  psychology  that  they 
have  developed  an  almost  invariable  accuracy  in  guiding 
boys  and  girls  into  their  niches  in  life.  But  the  period  of 
change  is  never  fixed.  We  are,  many  of  us,  advanced 
in  years  and  we  feel  almost  hopelessly  tied  to  what  we  are 
doing.  Unusual  conditions  often  jar  us  loose  and  leave  us 
without  moorings.  To  guide  us  into  a  channel  where  we 
can  successfully  and  happily  work  in  line  with  our  native 
talent  is  the  great  hunger  and  desire  of  countless  people. 

To  dwell  upon  the  assurance:  first,  that  you  are  capable. 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  55 

then  to  keep  your  mind  flexible,  and  finally  to  fight  the 
fear  of  a  change  of  occupation,  are  first  steps.  Go  deeper; 
know  that  the  Mind  which  made  you  of  Itself  left  in  you  a 
capacity  to  seek  and  to  find  that  radiation  or  expression  of 
being  which  is  your  superiority.  Every  emphasis  upon  your 
God-given  powers,  every  reliance  upon  the  truth — "the  divine 
in  you  doeth  the  work" — will  make  you  dynamic. 

A  colored  man  wanted  a  turkey  for  his  Christmas  din- 
ner. He  prayed  to  the  Lord  thusly:  "0  Lord,  send  a 
turkey  to  this  needy  servant  of  Thine.  But  if  You  can't  do 
that,  then  send  him  to  a  turkey."  This  illustrates  the 
unconscious  influence  of  your  consciousness  of  capacity. 
There  will  go  out  from  you,  with  or  without  your  consent, 
a  positive  telepathic  wave  which  will,  in  time,  either  bring 
the  right  thing  to  you  or  take  you  to  the  right  thing.  And 
this  is  what  every  one  needs  to  know  and  to  re-know. 

John  Burroughs  gave  us  the  truth  in  his  poem,  "I  know 
my  own  will  come  to  me."  Do  you  know  that?  Do  you 
believe  it  when  your  own  seems  indefinitely  delayed?  With- 
out naming  a  specific  need,  if  you  will  reiterate  that  fact 
actively  as  well  as  passively,  you  can  aff^ord  to  rest  easy 
as  to  the  whence  and  the  when.  Just  to  sit  down  and  wait 
is  poor  practice.  To  be  active  and  yet  passive,  as  far  as 
trying  to  force  "mine  own  to  come  to  me,"  is  the  sure 
method.  Activity  keeps  faith  vigorous.  Passivity  keeps  it 
controlled.  And  from  this  awareness,  a  light  unknown 
by  you,  shines  forth  to  guide  your  good  to  you. 

This  is  a  fact  of  constant  expression  in  my  own  experi- 
ence. Very  often  a  person  comes  to  me  in  a  panic  because 
a  thing  which  must  come  to  pass  does  not  show  signs  of 
appearance  a  few  days  before  the  time  when  it  is  needed. 
To  clear  the  channel  so  it  can  come  is  the  first  step.  To 
keep  it  clear  by  active  labor  in  some  diverting  field  and 
by  passive  assurance  in  idle  hours  is  the  second  step.     To 


56  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

rest  in  the  fact  that  each  thought  and  feeling  of  quiet 
knowledge  is  opening  the  gate  of  your  good  and  preparing 
the  way  for  its  entrance  is  chiefest  and  best.  Forth  from 
you  will  flow  an  unseen  stream,  magnetic  and  sure  in  its 
influence. 

To  complete  the  outflow  of  influence  you  must  educate 
the  will.  And  my  meaning  is  that  you  must  cultivate  the 
affirmative  attitude.  The  power  of  will  may  call  to  mind 
the  pictures  advertising  a  book  of  that  title.  It  showed  a 
high  power  automobile  thundering  along.  There  is  some- 
thing rough  and  relentless  in  will  power  of  this  type.  It 
represents  the  iron  heel,  the  crushing  determination  of 
self-centered  progress.  I  am  asking  for  an  education  of 
your  positives,  to  know  how  to  say  "Yes,"  to  be  able  to 
think  white  instead  of  black.  It  means  the  habit  of  seeing 
happy  endings  and  of  looking  for  successful  issues  to  each 
and  every  venture. 

The  influence  flowing  from  such  a  spirit  is  magical.  Let 
a  man  possessed  of  such  an  attitude  step  into  a  negative 
atmosphere.  Instantly,  and  almost  unconsciously  to  him, 
there  is  a  sudden  change.  Shadows  fade  out  and  hopeful- 
ness comes  in.  Faltering  and  timid  people  begin  to  brace 
up.  The  nerveless  and  supine  begin  to  act  as  if  a  stimulant 
had  been  administered.  And  from  the  chill  of  the  tomb  one 
passes  to  the  sunlight  of  hope.  This  has  been  the  uncon- 
scious influence  of  one  man  without  any  outward  eff^ort 
being  put  forth. 

When  we  begin  to  know  of  the  force  pent  up  in  an 
atom  of  energy,  we  will  begin  to  sense  the  power  latent 
in  each  positive  thought.  Then  we  can  see  how  a  man 
who  has  always  thought  affirmatively  becomes  a  dynamo 
emitting  power.  He  breathes  assurance  out  of  every 
pore  of  his  body.  His  presence  becomes  the  seal  of  success. 
And  the  world  seeks  out  such  men  and  says,  "You  must 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  57 

lead!"  It  believes  because  of  the  way  it  feels.  It  has 
come  under  the  sway  of  a  spirit  of  life  which  will  not 
countenance  evasion. 

God  put  the  capacity  of  divine  power  in  each  one. 
If  we  began  in  the  cradle  to  teach  affirmation  and  to  wipe 
out  hesitation,  we  would  rear  our  supermen.  Meanwhile 
each  man,  aware  of  his  divine  endowment,  can  do  no 
better  than  begin  now.  Let  each  day  find  you  in  this 
mathematical  mood  that  whenever  you  see  or  feel  a  minus 
sign  you  will  plus  it.  Approach  each  duty  as  a  something 
added.  Of  that  I  will  deal  more  in  detail.  Conunit  yourself 
to  the  habit  of  seeing  the  best  side  of  everybody  and 
everything.  Or,  if  Scripture  will  help,  "Search  all  things, 
hold  fast  (positively)  that  which  is  good."  And  so  from 
you  the  influence  of  powerful  persuasion  will  surely  flow. 


CHAPTER  EIGHT 

OW  do  you  tackle  the  task  that  is  not  to  your 
taste?  Watch  yourself  the  next  time  something 
irksome  confronts  you.  Your  reactions  to  it 
are  clues  to  your  power  of  self-mastery.  And 
it  is  in  this  mastery  of  what  we  term  disagree- 
able that  true  ability  lies. 

Few  realize  soon  enough  that  every  experience  is  a 
teacher.  There  is  not  a  duty  which  is  not  an  opportunity. 
Someone  has  counseled  substituting  the  word  privilege  for 
duty.  That  is  in  line  with  our  thought  of  plus-ing  it. 
Duty  has  been  made  a  distasteful  word.  We  have  put  it 
under  bondage.  It  belongs  in  common  thought  to  the  com- 
pulsory. So  the  freedom  of  expression  which  comes  out 
of  the  right  attitude  must  be  returned  to  the  spirit  and 
action  of  it. 

Jesus  gave  the  world  guidance  in  his  Gospel  of  the 
Second  Mile.  He  said  that  if  a  man  force  you  to  go  a  mile 
with  him,  add  a  second  one;  if  he  take  your  coat,  give  the 
cloak  also.  In  other  words,  do  a  little  bit  more  than  it  is 
your  duty  to  do.  Show  your  superiority  by  a  surplus. 
Give  evidence  that  you  have  passed  from  compulsion  to 
free  and  joyous  expression.  Let  good  will  come  out  of  a 
bitter  experience.  In  this  wise  we  would  give  counsel.  Let 
me  bring  you  a  new  and  higher  understanding.  Here  is  a 
method  for  the  distasteful  which  will  make  it  delightful, 
a  thing  divine  and  holy: 

There  is  not  a  duty  which  confronts  you  that  is  not 
essentially  beautiful  and  satisfying.  Someone  does  that 
thing  as  a  livelihood  and  gets  joy  out  of  it.  That  removes 
it  from  any  inherent  odium.  It  reflects  back  upon  you. 
Someone  can  do  this  and  delight  in  it.    Therefore,  it  holds 


60  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

a  higher  element.     Unless  you  see  that  and  extract  it,  you 
cannot  approach  it  with  anything  like  superiority. 

Super-men  are  rated  by  the  ease  and  calm  with  which 
they  go  through  a  way  beset  with  the  distasteful.  It  is 
the  pebbles  which  trip  us.  We  may  stub  our  toe  on  a 
rock,  but  rolling  stones  may  cause  dignity  to  descend.  I 
like  to  see  a  big,  strong  man  do  the  dishes  for  his  wife. 
I  believe  that  if  he  can  whistle  and  sing  at  such  a  task,  so 
endless  and  hopeless  as  some  housewives  conceive  it,  he 
has  the  elements  of  self-mastery.  Yet  even  in  this  house- 
hold humdrum  we  have  those  who  lift  it  into  an  art,  with 
joy.  Family  washing  was  once  the  bugaboo  of  women. 
But  someone  knew  there  was  a  mastery  of  this  godly  yet 
hardly  welcome  task.  So  now  we  have  families  which 
actually  quarrel  over  the  privilege  of  running  the  electric 
washing  machine. 

And  this  is  a  hint  of  superiority.  When  a  man  or 
woman  has  the  God-given  inspiration  to  give  a  duty  a  plus 
of  pleasure,  it  proves  the  duty  has  that  power  itself.  And 
the  one  who  has  found  the  new  and  beautiful  way  for  that 
duty  to  function  has,  by  that  action  fine,  made  himself 
more  divine.  God  is  lurking  in  every  shadow.  "Cleave 
the  rock  and  you  will  find  Me."  He  is  your  clue.  Approach 
the  thing  which  you  irk,  and  peer  with  the  Inner  Eye  into 
the  meaning  of  it.  You  will  find  there  a  Divine  Spirit, 
like  the  Genii  in  the  jar,  ready  to  rise  and  transform  the 
surroundings. 

Train  yourself  to  the  fairy  book  method.  Pretend  there 
is  a  kind  fairy  lurking  in  the  ledger.  Find  the  genii  in 
the  pots  and  pans.  Look  for  the  nymph  in  the  routine  order 
of  swinging  a  tool.  We  let  our  imagination  get  sodden 
because  a  thing  is  repetition.  Blessed  be  the  boy  in 
Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich's  "Being  a  Boy,"  who  made  hoeing 
weeds  a  great  crusade.     He  was  a  knight  in  shining  armor 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  61 

and  he  mowed  down  his  foes  in  marvelous  fashion.  Wlien 
he  came  out  of  his  dream  the  garden  was  free  from  every 
pest. 

Every  pest,  as  the  gardener  calls  it,  may  be  the  source 
of  a  useful  or  beautiful  creation  to  bless  human  life.  Talk 
with  Luther  Burbank.  Let  him  tell  you  what  he  has  done 
to  raise  roadside  weeds  to  a  place  in  the  gardens  of  princes. 
It  is  a  miracle  work.  Every  little  trying  duty  is  a  weed 
in  the  common  eye.  But  there  is  a  spirit  in  Man,  the  Eye  of 
Divine  Understanding  can  see  the  divinity  lurking  there. 
Let  that  Wisdom  lift  your  burden  and  plus  your  begrudged 
duty. 

Another  angle  for  mastery  is  the  way  in  which  you 
anticipate  the  onerous  task.  Do  you  fix  it  in  consciousness 
as  onerous?  Are  you  cheerful  about  it,  or  unmindful  of 
it?  Do  you  meet  it  when  you  come  to  it?  Or  do  you  send 
forward  a  blessing  to  it?     We  need  this  training  most  of  all. 

Before  ever  a  day  is  begun,  you  should  prepare  it  for 
yourself.  Learn  to  affirm,  "This  is  my  day  to  know  the  joy 
of  living.  Every  task  which  comes  to  me  was  meant  for 
me.  It  is  my  child.  I  shall  love  it,  care  for  it  tenderly  and 
completely.  I  shall  send  it  forth  with  blessing  to  serve  the 
world."  Not  a  hard  thing  to  do.  Quite  as  easy  as  to  con- 
demn it  or  even  swear  at  it,  as  men  are  sometimes  wont  to  do 
with  a  thing  which  they  consider  boresome.  Bless  the 
things  which  have  persecuted  you.  Do  good  to  the  thing 
disagreeable  to  you.  You  will  pass  out  of  persecution  and 
dread  into  anticipation  and  joy. 

When  you  thus  plus  a  duty,  you  have  really  plus-ed 
yourself.  You  have  shown  yourself  bigger  than  the  little 
thing  which  once  depressed  you.  You  are  no  longer  an 
unprofitable  servant,  doing  monotonously  what  comes  your 
way.     You  have  passed  out  of  routine  into  life. 

The  pay  for  this  procedure  is  peace  of  mind.     In  the 


62  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

August  Thomas  play,  "As  a  Man  Thinks,"  one  of  the 
characters  refers  to  the  parable  of  the  workers  in  the 
vineyard  which  Jesus  used.  The  men  who  came  the  last 
hour  were  paid  as  much  as  those  who  had  toiled  all  day. 
"The  eleventh  hour  men  worked  only  one  hour,  but  they 
worked  the  last  hour.  You  get  peace  of  mind  whenever 
you  do  your  duty,  whenever  you  do  something,  and  the 
splendid  thing  is,  it  is  never  too  late  to  do  it." 

There  is  a  wonderful  peace  of  mind  which  comes  to 
you  after  you  have  accomplished  a  task  which  has  been 
teasing  or  tormenting  you.  This  is  a  common  symptom. 
Now,  then,  let  us  reverse  the  order.  Begin  with  peace  of 
mind  and  see  with  what  calm  and  superior  power  you 
will  approach  the  task.  Note  the  ease  and  celerity  with 
which  you  do  it.  And  mark  the  aftermath.  At  that  end 
you  will  find  the  Peace  Passing  All  Understanding. 

We  arrive  at  duty-plus  when  we  sense  the  divinity  of 
duty.  There  is,  as  we  indicate,  no  merit  in  the  conscientious 
discharge  of  inevitable  obligations.  It  is, only  as  we  lift 
our  action  into  that  divine  impulse  where  it  is  as  glorious 
to  do  the  prosaic  and  usual  thing  as  though  it  were  the 
sublime  and  unusual.  We  have  come  to  this  divinity 
when  the  arduous  or  irksome  is  met  with  quiet  and  easy 
confidence. 

So  there  is  no  merit  in  paying  your  debts.  Yet  with 
what  self-congratulation  many  people  proclaim  the  discharge 
of  this  unavoidable  obligation!  The  Pharisee  in  business 
is  the  man  who  assumes  great  credit  because  he  is  scrupulous 
in  the  discharge  of  his  debts.  He  pays  a  bill  as  if  con- 
ferring a  favor  or  bestowing  a  library.  One  is  reminded 
of  the  man  who  dropped  a  nickel  in  the  blind  beggar's 
hat  with  great  show  and  said  in  benevolent  tones:  "There, 
my  poor  fellow,  is  a  quarter  for  you."  A  friend,  asking 
him  why  on  earth  he  tried  to  convey  such   benevolences. 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  63 

he  answered:  "Oh,  just  to  cheer  him  up  a  bit."  So  the 
man  who  parades  the  payment  of  his  debts  is  merely  patting 
himself  on  the  back  and  telling  himself  what  a  fine  fellow 
he  is.  This  isn't  even  a  decent  discharge  of  a  common  duty. 
Then  there  is  no  credit  in  a  man  saying  he  is  honest. 
That  is  an  arrogant  assumption.  It  presumes  that  honesty 
is  unusual.  I  like  the  character  of  an  old  shoemaker  whom 
George  McDonald  portrays,  resenting  the  reward  which  a 
lady  offered  him  for  the  return  of  a  diamond  found  in  her 
shoe,  by  saying:  "I  don't  have  to  be  paid  to  be  honest." 
Yet  that  is  the  negative  attitude  taken  by  the  world,  as  if  it 
is  something  which  must  be  fostered  from  its  lack. 

While  there  is  no  merit  in  a  man  asserting  his  honesty, 
it  is  a  big  thing  for  a  man  to  say,  "I  am  honest."  It 
involves  a  wide  responsibility.  It  takes  in  the  whole  world 
of  thought  and  action.  It  covers  all  conduct  and  character. 
It  leaves  a  man  without  refuge.  In  all  of  his  thinking  and 
acting  on  every  plane  he  must  never  be  guilty  of  any  subter- 
fuge or  evasion.  But  true  honesty  isn't  a  matter  of  policy; 
it  is  an  inherent  duty.  It  is  a  man's  response  to  the  Divine 
Image  in  which  he  is  cast.  When  it  becomes  a  matter  of 
instinct  to  always  act,  think  and  speak  with  unvarying 
sincerity,  and  when  a  man  does  this  without  calculation  or 
self-emulation,  then  is  the  duty  to  be  honest,  given  its  God- 
cast,  and  we  go  the  limit  in  love  for  honesty. 

Some  men  are  content  if  they  do  any  of  these  things 
under  compulsion.  Other  men  are  proud  because  they  do 
them  on  their  own  initiative.  Still  others,  raised  in  con- 
sciousness, never  give  these  attiudes  a  thought  and  are  not 
content  until  they  are  superior  to  all  conventional  standards. 
They  are  kin  to  a  great  teacher,  Edward  Bower,  of  Harrow, 
England,  of  whom  it  was  said:  "The  desire  to  make  good 
better  and  better  best  was,  with  him,  an  instinct."  He  did 
not  wish  to  be  known  and  remembered  by  men;    but  he 


64  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

wished  to  be  loved  by  many  friends.  Above  all,  he  thought 
to  serve;  since  to  serve  is  life's  divinest  duty  and  to  be 
loved  was  the  unsought  and  unthought  of  reward. 

The  divinity  of  duty  is  the  evidence  of  a  superlative  soul. 
If  you  only  do  what  is  required,  you  give  no  proof  that  you 
are  capable  of  more.  Employers  watch  for  men  who  do 
not  watch  their  watches.  Men  who  do  the  extra  bit  out  of 
interest  in  their  work  reveal  the  extra  in  themselves.  That 
is  the  index  of  their  capacity  for  greater  things.  Your 
measure  is  of  your  own  making.  God  has  given  you  un- 
limited capacity,  but  its  expansion  rests  upon  your  ability 
to  give  the  common  task  the  uncommon  expression. 

Coningsby  Dawson  tells  us  that  in  the  war  men  were 
forced  into  heroisms  of  which  they  did  not  dream  them- 
selves capable.  That  is  the  revelation  of  God.  He  permits 
the  eternally  capable  Self  within  us  to  slumber,  until 
we  put  the  extra  into  our  effort,  then  there  is  a  surge 
of  soul,  a  surplus  of  power  and  we  do  beyond  our  dreaming. 
If  we  are  to  be  as  Gods,  we  must  take  the  duty  that  presses 
out  of  the  moment,  however  wearisome  it  may  have  seemed, 
and  lend  to  it  such  an  expansion  of  power  that  the  sense 
of  the  task  shall  be  a  revelation  of  what  we  really  are. 


CHAPTER  NINE 

Wimavnth  Sntrement 

N  this  chapter  we  connect  ability  with  plenty  more 
closely,  and  bring  this  psychological  pair  nearer 
perfect  union.  As  ability  is  merely  the  plus  of 
duty,  so  plenty  is  simply  the  surplus  of  your 
present  status. 

Ruskin  says,  "There  is  no  wealth  but  life."  It  is  a  world 
of  truth.  Conversely  the  only  poverty  is  a  lack  of  life. 
No  one  knew  this  better  than  Jesus.  There  is  a  newer  and 
truer  version  of  His  well  known  words:  "I  am  come  that  ye 
might  have  life  and  have  it  more  abundantly."  Here  it  is: 
"I  am  come  that  you  might  have  life  and  that  you  might 
have  abundance."  So  you  see  poverty  and  lack  of  life  go 
together.  The  trend  of  His  teaching  was  freedom  through 
the  Truth  and  the  enrichment  of  life  through  realization  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Good  within.  The  true  source  of  plenty  is 
in  the  surplus  which  the  life  within  you  holds.  If  I  can 
make  every  man  and  woman  who  reads  this  see  this  truly 
and  completely,  they  need  never  confess  to  lack  again. 

Money,  or  material  substance,  is  merely  compressed 
force.  As  a  medium,  it  represents  power  in  expression. 
All  the  abundance  which  human  life  may  know  is  all 
around  us  in  solution,  and  the  right  reactions  of  mind 
and  spirit  can  precipitate  it.  Just  as  a  Seattle  lad  has 
learned  how  to  take  electrical  energy  directly  from  the 
air,  we  can  call  into  active  service  the  spiritual  forces 
which  express  in  substance  for  daily  need.  For  no  other 
reason  did  Jesus  turn  directly  to  God  and  say,  "Give  us 
this  day  our  daily  bread."  He  went  directly  to  the  Source.. 
There  is  need  just  now   for  this  realization.     A  sense  of 


66  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

lack,  or  the  pressure  of  inflated  value,  weighs  heavily  upon 
the  average  individual.  It  is  the  most  unselfish  service  we 
can  render  to  convert  the  want  of  the  world  into  the  wealth 
of  the  world.  This  is  only  a  matter  of  giving  existing  abun- 
dance the  right  expression. 

As  one  of  the  unerring  facts  of  God's  universe,  I  believe 
that  somewhere  there  is  ample  sufficiency  for  every  human 
need.  I  believe  it  as  much  as  I  believe  there  is  food  enough 
in  the  world  to  keep  famine  or  hunger  from  every  door,  if 
we  had  the  right  social  system  and  proper  economic  distribu- 
tion. So  I  know  there  is  a  surplus  possible,  an  increment 
which  earns  itself,  when  we  have  done  our  part.  There  is 
an  attitude,  an  approach,  an  application  of  principles 
whereby  this  comes  to  pass.  It  is  neither  magical  nor 
mysterious.  No  amount  of  lessons  or  lectures  will  give 
you  a  golden  key.  After  all  your  lessons  and  lectures,  it 
rests  with  the  content  of  Ruskin's  dictum,  "There  is  no 
wealth  but  life." 

First  and  chiefly,  this  means  a  certain  kind  of  life 
which  you  must  live  and  use.  However  you  may  dream 
of  plenty,  the  pledge  of  it  in  your  case  rests  with  a  knowl- 
edge of  life.  This,  in  the  largest  sense,  avails  more  than 
all  else.  No  amount  of  mental  jugglery  can  turn  the  trick. 
No  path  of  prosperity,  however  magical,  will  get  you  any- 
where if  it  leads  you  away  from  the  facts  of  life. 

One  man  with  a  knowledge  of  life,  chiefly  insight  of 
human  nature,  uses  his  knowledge  for  purely  personal  gain. 
His  way  becomes  one  of  ruthless  selfishness.  Jesus  points 
out  his  ultimate  poverty  of  soul.  Many  a  man  with  a  pas- 
sion for  material  comfort  repeats  the  parable.  Many  a  man 
with  ideals  leaves  his  idealism  for  a  realism  which,  alas! 
becomes  some  day  very  evident  to  his  soul.  Seeking  for 
mere  material  gain,  he  comes  to  learn  that  is  all  he  gets,  just 
money.    Many  with  insight  of  life  profit  by  the  credulity  of 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  67 

the  mass.  So  Barnum  gave  us  the  famous  axiom,  "The 
American  people  like  to  be  humbugged."  But  this  use  of  a 
large  knowledge  of  life  leads  one  into  final  disillusionment. 
Self  is  the  final  commodity,  and  of  self  one  can  become 
very  sick  and  very  tired. 

A  true  knowledge  of  life  will  lend  you  balance.  It  will 
open  up  the  full  content  of  life.  You  will  see  its  diviner 
aspects,  its  limitless  potencies.  You  will  find  the  sources 
of  permanent  enrichment.  Life  in  the  sense  we  mean  is 
universal  life,  comprehending  and  encompassing  all  things. 
You  gain  reach  of  understanding  and  are  saved  from  perver- 
sion of  viewpoint  or  loss  of  perspective.  Lack  of  perspec- 
tive is  what  creates  all  other  lack  in  life.  It  is  the  most 
common  of  defects. 

True  knowledge  of  life  means  extension  of  conscious- 
ness. That  means  insight,  grasp  of  the  full  content  of  life 
and  a  proper  valuation  of  your  advantages  and  opportuni- 
ties. We  marvel  at  the  deep  reach  of  understanding  which 
Jesus  displayed.  This  was  due  to  depth  of  divine  insight. 
It  was  so  extended  in  Him  that  he  could  anticipate  the  divine 
procedure  and  read  the  souls  of  men.  This  penetrative 
power  can  come  to  others  as  it  came  to  Him.  It  will  protect 
you  from  dishonesty  and  the  designs  of  the  unscrupulous. 
Just  as  the  spectroscope  analyzes  the  substance  of  planets 
by  the  radiations  of  light,  so  we  can  sense  and  analyze  the 
feelings  of  our  fellow-men.  Thus  are  we  guarded  and 
guided  in  the  realization  of  a  larger  good. 

This  extension  of  our  knowledge  of  life  broadens  our 
vision,  deepens  our  sympathy  and  develops  confidence  and 
courage.  It  does  not  allow  you  to  be  cramped,  limited  or 
fearful  in  spirit.  As  the  Roman  was  at  ease,  content  wher- 
ever he  saw  the  flash  of  the  Roman  eagle  or  the  tramp  of 
Roman  legions,  so  we  must  find  in  the  beneficence  and 
bounty  of  the  universe  a  sense  of  assurance  and  confidence. 


68  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

Out  of  this  spirit  will  come  the  power  to  appropriate  and 
develop  untapped  resources  for  our  ease  and  well-being. 

An  extension  of  consciousness  is  simply  an  enlargement 
of  your  mental  attitude.  You  begin  to  think  in  terms  of 
divine  resource,  commanding  confidence,  conquering  cour- 
age, keener  judgment  and  vaster  shrewdness.  So  many 
lose  sight  of  the  main  fact.  They  get  the  idea  that  if  they 
gain  "a  wisdom  above  the  wisdom  of  this  world,"  they  will 
immediately  step  into  affluence.  Extension  of  consciousness 
does  not  exclude  the  wisdom  of  this  world,  good  common 
sense,  but  includes  it.  It  simply  expands  your  faculties 
and  gives  you  finer  weapons  with  which  to  work.  It  enlarges 
business  sense  and  opens  new  eyes  of  advantage  and  oppor- 
tunity. 

This  is  the  way  to  train  yourself  for  the  reign  of  plenty. 
You  must  be  big  enough  in  vision  to  desire  and  see  abun- 
dance for  all,  not  simply  for  self.  In  this  is  the  only  hope 
of  acquiring  plenty. 

Plenty  also  depends  upon  the  expansion  of  sympathetic 
appreciation  of  others.  We  must  see  the  economic  depend- 
ence of  all  on  each  and  of  each  on  all.  We  are  all  in  this 
world  together.  It  takes  all  of  us  to  make  it  a  world.  W^e 
cannot  afford  to  allow  any  large  per  cent  to  suffer  or 
come  to  the  pinch  of  undeserved  poverty.  We  are  seeking  a 
world  where  democracy  is  safe.  Democracy  means  liberty 
and  justice  for  all.  A  noted  speaker  raised  the  question, 
"Have  we  achieved  liberty?"  He  showed  how  we  had 
religious  liberty.  Each  is  free  to  worship  God  in  his  own 
way.  We  have  passed  beyond  the  Puritan  whom  Josh 
Billings  said  came  to  America  to  enjoy  religious  liberty 
and  prevent  everyone  else  from  doing  the  same.  We  now 
have  full  freedom  of  religious  faith. 

We  have  nearly  achieved  political  liberty.    The  passage 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  69 

of  the  Universal  Suffrage  bill  by  Congress  brings  us  close 
to  the  ideal  in  that  respect. 

Now  we  must  secure  industrial  liberty,  was  the  main 
contention  of  our  authority.  We  must  so  organize  industry 
that  its  fruits  shall  be  accessible  to  all.  The  attempt  to 
throttle  avenues  of  economic  opportunity  must  be  branded 
as  lawlessness.  Liberty  means  a  land  of  free  people.  The 
land  must  be  freed  as  well  as  the  people.  The  public 
domain  must  be  further  developed.  Waste  lands  by  the 
millions  of  acres  can  be  made  accessible  to  people  crushed 
by  the  crowding  and  competitive  life  of  today. 

Justice  must  also  come.  Justice  will  come  when  the 
curse  of  covetousness  is  gone.  Greed  breeds  injustice,  the 
spirit  of  insolent  disregard  for  the  poor  and  downtrodden. 
Greed  has  actually  made  a  travesty  of  justice.  Remove  the 
greed  and  you  bring  fair  playing  and  square  dealing. 

This  hideous  nightmare  of  greed  flies  athwart  our  civili- 
zation. We  are  at  the  mercy  of  it  as  the  ancient  king  was 
at  the  mercy  of  great  foul  birds  called  harpies,  which  flew 
into  his  banquet  room  and  devoured  the  food.  It  has  given 
us  the  mad  scramble,  the  clutching  hand,  the  itching  palm. 
So  we  need  to  be  purged.  Purge  us  of  covetousness  and 
we  will  deal  justly  and  love  mercy. 

Justice  ivill  give  to  every  man  a  square  deal  and  a 
sure  meal. 

Justice  will  give  to  every  woman  fair  play  and  a  rose 
pathway,  with  no  fear  of  a  primrose  way. 

Justice  will  give  to  every  child  the  right  to  joy  and  the 
reign  of  plenty. 

Toward  such  an  industrial  democracy  as  this,  we  must 
think,  work  and  pray  with  head,  heart  and  hand. 

Plenty  rests  upon  delicacy  of  perception.     If  each  was 


70  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

keen  and  quick  to  discern  the  wayside  wealth,  we  could 
pluck  our  good  as  we  pick  wayside  flowers.  The  soul  of 
man  was  meant  to  be  like  a  seismograph,  able  to  detect 
earth  tremors  thousands  of  miles  away.  Such  delicacy  of 
perception  could  redound  to  great  good  even  in  the  market 
place.  There  is  no  market  commodity  like  keenness  and 
shrewdness.  The  cunning  of  trade,  however,  must  be  spirit- 
ualized, otherwise  it  is  simply  refined  hoggishness.  Keen- 
ness, as  ability  to  see  advantage,  must  come  not  as  a 
weapon  of  competitive  destruction,  but  of  co-operative  help- 
fulness. It  must  be  ability  to  see  the  good  of  a  brother  as 
best  for  both.    It  must  be  communal,  not  personal. 

Jesus  commended  the  practical  man  who  was  rich  toward 
God.  So  our  modern  man  must  see  business  from  the  man 
end,  rather  than  the  money  end.  Then  he  will  begin  to  see 
sources  of  real  wealth.  I  would  rather  be  Henry  Ford  than 
any  man  of  money  that  I  know.  He  has  proved  that  there 
is  enough  for  all,  and  the  fun  of  creating  is  in  making  finer 
manhood,  more  comforting  womanhood,  and  happier  child- 
hood. He  has  put  the  light  heart  and  free  soul  into  thou- 
sands.    He  has  been  very  keen,  very  shrewd  for  God. 

This  delicacy  of  perception  of  the  real  road  to  plenty 
comes  out  of  two  things: 

1.  Love  gives  breadth  of  perception.  We  fail  to  under- 
stand each  other  in  business  because  we  fail  to  connect  cause 
and  eff'ect.  So  many  do  not  see  the  man  at  the  other  end  of 
a  bargain,  as  Oscar  Strauss  said.  Then  we  measure  men 
wrongly.  We  call  one  rich,  another  poor.  The  reverse  may 
be  true.  Life  and  love  are  ultimate  sources  of  wealth.  The 
love  side  is  the  winsome,  winning  side.  Jesus  pronounced 
the  gift  of  a  sinning  woman  priceless  because  she  loved 
much.  We  must  see  the  end  of  the  way  and  know  that  when 
all  things  fail,  that  love  can  remain,  if  we  have  it  to  begin 
with.     So  place  value  where  it  belongs.     See  that  lack  of 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  71 

love  is  the  only  poverty.    Fullness  of  love  is  the  only  plenty. 
Love  will  keep  us  all  from  lack. 

2.  Truth  gives  length  to  perception.  A  reach  of  insight 
comes  to  the  soul  of  integrity.  To  the  soul  of  truth  earth 
teems  with  bounty.  With  the  eye  of  truth  one  surveys  all 
the  facts  of  life.  One  may  see  that  though  he  never  becomes 
affluent,  yet  he  may  be  mighty  rich.  My  work  is  my  wealth. 
Labors  of  love  are  my  luxuries,  not  because  they  are  infre- 
quent, but  because  I  have  so  much  of  one  that  I  can  always 
have  enough  of  the  other.  Thus  truth  gives  me  perspective. 
It  has  opened  my  eyes  to  the  real  values.  I  know  how  to 
abound.  I  ever  see  my  ample  good.  So  I  am  stimulated 
on  the  earth  side.  I  have  no  fear  of  want,  thus  I  am  full  of 
confidence  and  have  fresh  initiative  and  enthusiasm  ever  at 
hand  to  win  my  need.  My  dividends  grow  out  of  this  diviner 
insight,  and  so  I  live  in  the  kingdom  of  plenty,  because 
truth  has  given  me  a  sense  of  values. 

Take  these  two  divine  qualities  as  the  gold  and  silver  of 
life.  Give  them  a  place  in  everyday  life,  in  your  business 
transactions,  your  industrial  relations.  By  a  strange  alchemy 
they  will  change  into  the  currency  of  the  realm  and  you  will 
have  both  material  and  spiritual  plenty. 

Your  surplus  is  always  sure  when  you  add  to  this,  spir- 
itual mindedness.  That  is,  you  must  extend  your  conscious- 
ness of  God  until  you  anticipate  the  divine  procedure. 

The  very  best  farmer  in  the  world  is  the  one  who  is  most 
familiar  with  the  natural  processes.  He  anticipates  the 
divine  order  in  plant  life.  He  uses  insight,  foresight  and 
faith.  He  has  knowledge  of  the  ways  of  God  in  the  vege- 
table kingdom.  When  he  has  evolved  high  enough  he 
becomes  a  Burbank.  He  lays  hold  of  hidden  forces  and 
brings  them  out.  He  makes  two  apples  or  plums,  and 
superior  ones  at  that,  grow  where  one  grew  before.  Men 
call  him  a  wizard,  when  he  is  only  divinely  attuned  and 
conscious  of  the  higher  ways  of  plant  life. 


72  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

The  very  best  miner  in  the  world  is  not  your  happy- 
go-lucky  prospector,  who  may  stumble  on  to  a  pay  strsak. 
He  is  the  man  who  has  studied  the  strata  of  the  earth  as 
the  pages  of  a  Bible  of  God,  in  which  are  all  the  secrets, 
the  gems  of  fairest  ray  serene.  He  applies  himself  to  the 
law  of  the  Lord  in  the  mineral  kingdom  and  comes  to  a  day 
when  he  can  pick  up  a  rock  and  take  out  a  gem.  Then  he 
becomes  a  Sir  Ernest  Rutherford,  who  solves  the  riddle  of 
transmutation  of  metals  and  creates  gold  out  of  baser  sub- 
stance by  his  knowledge  of  radio-activity. 

This  is  but  parallel  to  a  state  of  mind  which  all  men 
must  come  into.  The  supreme  laws  are  spiritual,  and  the 
mind  to  discern  these  shall  gain  a  supreme  consciousness, 
able  to  anticipate  the  divine  procedure. 

How  did  Jesus  multiply  the  five  loaves  and  two  fishes? 
I  used  to  have  a  way  of  explaining  that  which  was  very 
pleasing  to  my  intellectual  vanity.  It  explained  it  away,  but 
it  showed  no  spiritual  comprehension  of  it.  Now  I  begin 
to  see  the  truth  of  it.  I  know  Jesus  as  the  Master  Mind 
who  could  anticipate  the  divine  procedure.  He  could  accel- 
erate the  natural  process  of  fish  from  eggs  and  of  bread 
from  grain.  He  went  back  of  the  snowy  loaf,  back  of  the 
wheat  and  the  flour,  back  to  the  source  of  limitless  abun- 
dance and  drew  directly  upon  the  Great  Giver.  He  par- 
alleled by  spiritual  knowledge  what  the  boy  in  Seattle  does 
by  electrical  knowledge.  He  drev/  from  out  the  Infinite 
Substance  that  which  was  needed  for  the  hour. 

Many  may  feel  that  nothing  follows  from  this  for  them. 
Yet  Jesus  assured  His  disciples  of  what  might  follow  if  they 
would  measure  up  to  their  possible  God-hood.  If  we  will 
pay  the  price,  the  secret  will  be  given.  It  cannot  come  to 
one  who  knows  not  the  higher  law.  You  cannot  pull  elec- 
tricity directly  from  the  air  to  run  your  vacuum  cleaner. 
Your    technical    knowledge    of    electricity    may    be    as    far 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  73 

removed  as  if  you  were  a  vacuum.  But  did  you  master  the 
electrical  law  you  might  have  been  the  one  to  do  the  supreme 
thing  such  as  the  Seattle  lad  accomplished. 

Here  is  the  heart  of  divine  truth.  If  we  will  give  our- 
selves adequate  spiritual  knowledge,  train  our  souls  in  love; 
love  of  truth,  wisdom,  love;  if  we  will  seek  continuous, 
harmonious  relations  with  all  men  and  all  conditions,  we 
will  be  given  an  instrument  of  spiritual  insight.  How  will 
that  work  for  abundance? 

It  will  make  you  mentally  aware  and  vitally  conscious 
of  divine  opportunities  for  the  creation  of  substance. 

It  will  make  you  more  humanly  keen  and  more  spirit- 
ually sensitive  to  the  ways  in  which  bounty  flows. 

It  will  make  you  more  discerning  yet  more  ethically 
thoughtful  that  your  gains  do  not  come  at  another's  loss. 
This  is  more  necessary  than  most  men  know.  "Thou  shalt 
not  steal"  applies  to  a  thousand  methods  and  means.  The 
right  sensitiveness  of  mind  and  spirit  will  give  you  the 
right  hunches,  endow  you  with  superior  insight — in  fact, 
make  your  soul  just  such  a  spiritual  machine  that  it  can  pull 
into  substance  the  bounty  of  God,  now  in  solution. 

This  secret  of  abundance  only  comes  in  fullness  by 
fullest  surrender.  You  must  become  as  delicate  in  fore- 
sight and  insight  as  a  seismograph,  which  can  record  an 
earthquake  that  is  thousands  of  miles  from  you.  One  can 
really  get  sub-conscious  penetration.  You  can  come  to 
where  you  can  actually  shut  out  conflicting  human  opinion 
or  thought  influence  and  see  your  way  clear  to  your  fulfilled 
desire.  It  will  be  as  if  a  voice  in  your  ear  said:  "Choose 
this  thing;  act  that  way;  follow  that  lead."  It  will  never 
go  wrong,  if  you  see  to  it  that  there  is  not  a  speck  of  dust 
on  the  divinely  delicate  bearings  of  your  spiritual  con- 
sciousness. 


74  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

Dust?  Yes,  the  dust  of  Doubt,  damning,  deadening 
doubt,  which  clogs  and  corrodes.  Until  you  can  keep  your 
mind  clear  of  this,  you  will  always  find  a  grinding  and  effort 
in  your  operations.  You  can  never  swing  into  the  rhythm 
of  right  action  and  sure  achievement  until  all  doubt  is  out. 

Fear !  This  is  the  grit  which  is  not  sand,  but  soot.  Fear 
has  no  sand  in  it.  Fear  never  did  have  any  sand  and  never 
will.  You  have  never  seen  a  fear-filled  soul  that  had  any 
sand  or  grit.  A  soul  of  fear  is  just  a  smudge  upon  the 
fair  face  of  a  possibly  perfect  Faith.  Keep  clear  of  fear 
and  your  soul  will  sing  and  swing  out  into  the  use  of  untold 
energies  of  God. 

Hesitation!  This  is  a  lint  which  gets  into  the  gears.  It 
is  a  fluff  stuff,  so  slight  that  we  often  ignore  it.  But  it  will 
add  to  itself,  will  wind  itself  around  a  high  geared  soul  and 
catch  up  dust  and  soot,  and  then  soon,  out  of  gear,  out  of 
action,  out  of  luck,  out  of  pocket.  Truly  "he  who  hesitates 
is  lost."  Only  in  doubtless,  fearless  action. shall  you  find 
power  to  pull  your  good  out  of  the  everywhere  into  the  here. 

Just  by  these  methods  of  thinking  and  acting  your 
surplus  will  come  forth.  Somehow,  when  the  Life  is 
adjusted,  it  becomes  capable  of  working  and  expressing  in 
terms  of  its  own  richness  and  fullness  in  every  plane.  All 
planes  are  parallel  and  move  truly  along  one,  and  you  are 
always  evenly  adjusted  to  all  others.  There  is  everywhere 
ample  store.  There  need  never  be  any  further  lack  if  you 
will  study  and  impress  this  chapter  upon  your  very  soul. 
You  will  have  the  psychology  of  plenty  well  on  its  way  to 
complete  expression.  A  personal  enrichment  will  come,  a 
richness  of  spirit  and  a  capacity  to  react  to  every  situation 
serenely  and  successfully,  as  we  will  show  you  in  the  next 
chapter. 


CHAPTER  TEN 


^etoet  ^ouljf 


^S^^^S  HIS  phrase,  velvet  souls,  gives  life  a  certain 
wijKJ^^  texture.  It  creates  a  kind  of  soul  altogether  too 
VPl^lifL  ^^^^  ^"  these  hurly-burly  times.  It  weaves  a 
^X^^ff/  character  which  has  a  grace,  a  smoothness,  a 
finish  at  once  shimmery  and  wholesome.  The 
kind  of  folk  who  have  it  do  innumerable  good  deeds  softly. 
They  have  a  moral  fiber  almost  grim  in  its  grip,  yet  refining 
to  life.  They  belong  to  a  type  of  whom  Lafcadio  Hearn 
speaks:  "Who  never  did  anything  which  was  not,  I  will  not 
say  right,  that  is  obvious — anything  which  was  not  beau- 
tiful." He  illustrates  by  one  he  knew  in  Japan,  "The 
sweetest  little  woman,  not  seemingly  of  flesh  and  blood,  but 
of  silk  embroidery  mixed  with  soul,  slowly  dying  amid  great 
poverty  and  pain,  but  never  complaining,  never  breaking 
down,  never  ceasing  to  smile  nor  allowing  her  personal  suf- 
ferings to  invade  her  surroundings."  And  we  call  such  lives 
by  the  term,  velvet  souls. 

Velvet  souls  simply  mean  the  art  of  living  smoothly. 
We  need  nothing  so  much  either  in  social  relations  or  mental 
attitude.  But  smoothness  of  living  must  not  involve  com- 
promise with  evil  or  surrender  of  principles.  Peace  and 
quiet  must  not  come  through  acquiescence  with  the  wrong. 
Only  jelly  hearts  cry  "peace"  when  there  is  no  peace.  Only 
men  of  mush  and  moonshine  try  to  get  along  with  every- 
body, even  workers  of  iniquity.  As  long  as  injustice  and 
evil  stalk  the  earth,  the  only  people  who  will  be  undisturbed 
are  in  the  graveyards.  The  rest  of  us  must  right  the 
wrongs  and  make  the  rough  places  smooth.  And  the 
paradox  of  it  all  is  that  we  can  be  velvet  souls  amid  the 


76  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

turbulence,  the  sordid  and  hideous  aspects  of  life.  In  fact, 
the  looms  of  life  which  weave  such  souls  are  placed  amid 
such  conditions,  and  that  is  the  text  of  the  texture. 

Velvet  souls  are  most  sensitive  to  suffering.  Their  eyes 
are  far-seeing.  They  look  for  the  unvarying  beauty  in 
human  nature.  They  see  the  wrong  which  lies  about  them, 
but  instead  of  bustling  around,  making  a  great  hue  and  cry 
over  it,  or  going  full  tilt  at  it,  they  approach  it  in  a  quiet, 
commanding,  hidden  way,  and  by  force  of  their  gentleness 
they  brush  the  nightmare  of  evil  away  and  leave  the  peace 
of  God  in  its  place.  We  need  such  souls  more  than  we 
need  noisy  reformers  or  self-advertised  righteous  people. 

A  velvet  soul  is  produced  by  a  mental  atmosphere.  It 
is  possible  for  a  person  to  create  a  calm  or  a  storm  by  the 
bent  of  his  mind.  You  can  so  charge  your  mind  for  good 
or  ill  that  it  will  make  itself  felt  wherever  you  are.  His 
very  presence  made  bad  men  good,  was  said  of  the  Master 
Jesus,  and  it  is  an  index  to  the  thought  force  of  a  possessed 
spirit.  Even  wild  beasts  have  been  cowed  and  held  back  by 
the  calm  assurance  of  a  master  miind.  We  cannot  set  any 
limit  to  the  compelling  power  of  a  Christ  conscious  life. 
Examples  which  sound  like  fairy  tales  could  be  cited  to  you 
to  prove  how  potent  this  sense  of  dominion  can  be. 

"She  makes  such  a  beautiful  climate  for  me,"  said  a 
mother  of  her  attractive  daughter.  That  is  just  what  a 
velvet  soul  produces — a  gentle  atmosphere.  Such  a  one 
tempers  the  moral  climate,  warms  its  coldness,  cools  its 
excessive  heat,  soothes  its  sorrows,  cheers  its  discourage- 
ments. And  that  is  the  function  of  the  soul.  It  does  not 
fulfill  its  mission  nor  warrant  the  name  of  soul  unless  it 
does.  With  the  soul  supreme,  with  a  divine  consciousness 
dominating  you,  you  cannot  help  but  be  a  peace  giver,  a 
happiness  producer,  a  joy  distributor.  The  soul  is  a  process 
of  constructive  thought  which  is  centered  upon  whatsoever 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  77 

things  are  true,  honorable,  just,  pure,  lovely,  of  good  report, 
and  by  thinking  on  these  things  comes  into  possession  of 
the  peace  of  God,  a  spiritual  climate  which  transforms  by 
unconscious  and  conscious  influence.  Or  to  go  back  to  the 
figure  of  velvet  and  think  of  the  soul  as  clothed,  it  is  woven 
of  the  silken  threads  of  charity,  peace,  forbearance,  control 
and  love.  Such  a  soul  is  always  pleasing  to  the  contact 
and  has  a  luster  which  imparts  a  subtle  grace  and  richness 
to  life.  Long  after  you  live  down  the  eff^ect  of  somebody 
who  affected  you  like  a  piece  of  crash  toweling,  you  keep 
the  haunting  memory  of  a  plush-like  life  which  brushed 
against  you  in  passing. 

Often  in  families  there  are  lives  like  the  old-fashioned 
haircloth — severe,  harsh,  and  unyielding.  Such  lives  can 
never  be  rubbed  the  wrong  way  without  producing  a  very 
evident  irritation.  On  the  contrary  a  velvety  life  yields 
gently  without  annoyance.  Haircloth  never  was  a  success, 
either  on  furniture  or  in  a  family.  It  was  tolerated,  but  it 
could  not  be  modified  or  changed.  Lovers  never  loved  it  on 
the  sofa  upon  which  they  courted.  And  the  tragedy  of  it 
all  is  that  the  quality  of  it  was  often  carried  into  the  later 
married  life. 

Thomas  Carlyle,  great  as  he  was,  had  a  haircloth  char- 
acter. Early  he  wooed  and  married  one  of  the  sweetest 
and  m^ost  brilliant  girls  of  his  day.  As  the  years  of  their 
married  life  lengthened,  the  harshness  and  severity  of  Car- 
lyle's  nature  crept  out.  Irritation  became  the  key  of  his 
voice,  and  all  gentleness  went  out  of  his  nature.  She 
sacrificed  her  life  to  his  dyspeptic  humor,  relieving  him  of 
all  monotonous  detail,  correcting  his  notes.  One  day  two 
distinguished  vistors  called  upon  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Carlyle. 
For  an  hour  the  philosopher  poured  out  a  tirade  against 
the  commercial  spirit  of  the  age.  The  good  wife  never 
opened  her  lips  to  speak.     As  last  the  author  ceased  and 


78  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

there  was  silence  for  a  moment.  Suddenly  Carlyle  thmi- 
dered,  "Jane!  Stop  breathing  so  loud!"  Long  before  she 
had  done  everything  except  stop  breathing.  So,  obediently, 
a  few  days  later,  Jane  stopped  breathing  so  loud.  A  few 
)  weeks  after  her  death  Carlyle  discovered  that  for  years  she 
had  kept  life  smooth  for  him,  caring  for  his  bodily  health 
and  mental  peace.  This  velvet  soul  had  starved  and  frozen 
to  death  for  want  of  the  affection  which  he  might  have 
bestowed.  Too  late  he  realized  his  fame  was  largely  his 
wife's.  He  paid  the  penalty  which  he  deserved.  For  Froude 
tells  us  he  began  to  make  those  pathetic  pilgrimages  to  his 
wife's  grave,  where  he  found  him  broken-heartedly  and 
inconsolably  murmuring,  "If  I  had  only  known,  if  I  had 
only  known!" 

It  is  a  strong  hint  that  in  the  family  life  the  velvet  soul 
must  be  woven.  Unless  the  jangling  and  discord  of  conflict- 
ing desires  can  be  done  away  here  in  the  most  intimate 
circle,  we  cannot  hope  to  weave  it  out  in  the  world,  where 
the  forces  against  us  are  ever  intruding.  Out,  of  considerate- 
ness  as  a  constant  mental  attitude,  we  come  to  a  sense  of  that 
dear  togetherness  of  family  life,  which  we  can  extend  beyond 
our  door  to  the  world  of  our  daily  contact. 

The  crying  need  of  every  community  is  a  larger  con- 
siderateness.  A  whole  community  can  be  poisoned  and 
soured  by  a  carping,  cynical  spirit  of  a  newspaper  or  even 
by  one  bitter,  biting  tongue.  Our  need  isn't  the  political 
soft  pedal,  but  a  few  souls  with  a  velvety  speed  and  action 
and  a  positive  spirit  to  change  the  atmosphere.  It  is  hard 
to  remove  the  spirit  of  critcism  and  judgment.  But  it  is 
not  so  hard  to  keep  the  sting  out  of  it.  We  ought  to  try  to 
be  like  the  Caucasian  bee.  Now  a  non-stinging  bee  seems  an 
anomaly,  but  experts  assert  that  in  the  Caucasus  Mountains 
there  is  such  a  species.  Curiously,  this  bee  is  neighbor  to 
the  Syrian   species,  which   bears  the   reputation   of  a  par- 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  79 

ticularly  bad  temper.  The  Caucasian  bee  is  most  amiable. 
While  provided  with  a  sting,  as  all  bees  worth  anything, 
it  is  difficult  to  make  it  sting  a  human  being.  Almost 
nothing  which  a  human  can  do  will  cause  it  to  attack 
him.  The  human  hive  needs  that  sort  of  busybodies.  Let 
them  buzz  and  bustle  all  they  wish,  let  them  fuss  over  a 
deal  of  nothing,  let  them  have  their  cast  iron  creeds  and 
their  hide-bound  politics,  if  they  will  only  keep  the  sting 
out  of  their  busy-ness. 

Walter  Pater,  a  classical  novelist  seldom  read,  creates 
that  type  of  character  which  moves  through  a  community, 
gentle  minded  and  silently  observant  of  the  motley  throng. 
He  places  a  velvet  soul,  if  you  please,  who  has  instant  and 
positive  influence,  yet  whose  religion  is  never  hurting, 
never  denouncing  and  back-biting,  but  reticent  and  self- 
eff'acing,  looking  at  the  twilight  spaces  in  life  and  adding 
his  silence  to  the  great  soothing  silence  which  lies  beyond 
the  bustle  of  life  as  the  source  of  our  power  and  possession. 
Wherever  you  find  this  sort  of  a  soul  in  a  community  as  a 
dominating  personality,  you  find  a  congenial  atmosphere. 
Somehow  or  other  the  very  air  is  tempered.  You  feel  a  sense 
of  hospitality,  of  love  for  the  human. 

There  are  some  small  communities  where  life  is  posi- 
tively so  catty  that  all  the  real  felines  have  migrated,  because 
they  cannot  stand  the  competition.  Then  again  you  step  into 
hamlets  that  are  for  all  the  world  like  an  old-fashioned 
garden,  full  of  sweet  lavender,  honeysuckle  and  heliotrope. 
In  such  places,  as  radiating  centers  of  influence,  you  will 
find  gracious  lives,  irresistible  in  influence,  who  have  suf- 
fused their  surroundings  with  their  own  sweetness  and 
light.  It  is  a  matter  of  worthy  pride  that  often  the  person- 
ality which  did  this  has  been  the  product  of  our  own 
religious  attitude.  It  is  inevitable.  Constant  dwelling  upon 
the  justice  and  mercy  of  an  Infinite  Father,  who  will  bring 


80  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

all  men  to  the  light  and  the  truth;  constant  feelings  of 
charity  and  brotherly  love  for  all  mankind,  and  faith  in 
the  ultimate  redemption  of  all  from  their  suffering  and 
sinning  induces  a  state  of  mind,  a  quality  of  soul  at  once 
winsome,  positive  and  sure  in  its  effect  upon  the  world. 

I  saw  a  city  moulded  by  this  type  of  a  man,  the  heroism 
of  a  gentle  soul.  In  memory  I  see  one  who  is  now  sadly 
missed,  where  he  made  his  light  for  a  clean  city  and  a 
peaceable,  harmonious  citizenship.  A  judge  he  was,  keen 
and  astute,  but  with  a  heart  as  tender  and  sweet  as  the 
heart  of  a  girl.  More  than  once  he  tasted  defeat  at  the 
hands  of  the  unscrupulous,  but  never  once  could  the  slimy 
hands  of  the  gangsters  soil  the  robe  of  honest  manhood  and 
clean  life.  He  made  his  fight  without  bitterness,  a  velvet 
soul,  adding  to  the  finer  sense  of  a  city  a  spirit  of  life 
which  will  linger  on,  remembered  because  impressed  upon 
the  youth  of  the  place.  There  are  such  souls  moving  through 
every  city.  They  seldom,  if  ever,  are  widely  spoken  of  in 
public  print,  but  they  are  felt  subtly  but  surely  in  the 
deeper  life.  The  changes  they  make  cannot  be  measured, 
but  they  are  more  potent  than  one  can  estimate.  Life  is 
transformed  by  personality,  but  back  of  the  personality  is  a 
principle  as  the  motive  of  action  and  source  of  power.  It 
is  very  refreshing  to  know,  amid  all  the  clamor  for  atten- 
tion and  publicity  on  the  part  of  some  people,  that  the 
real  work  of  the  world  is  done  by  quiet,  unobtrusive  folk. 
It  is  something  to  be  able  to  gather  together  substance,  to 
win  out  in  the  business  game,  to  be  aggressive  enough  to 
succeed.  But  there  is  another  side,  and  this  is  the  real  side. 
There  are  people  who  gain  without  the  bustle  and  the  stir 
that  most  people  expend,  all  that  the  strenuous  gain,  yet 
without  struggle,  but  with  a  calmness  of  possession,  a 
smoothness  amid  turbulence.  They  take  away  tenseness  and 
give  that  restful  confidence  which  this  overanxious  age  so 
much  needs. 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  81 

It  all  goes  to  show  that  if  we  wish  to  improve  the  com- 
munity and  remove  discord,  we  must  create  the  atmosphere 
in  ourselves.  We  can  legislate  till  doomsday,  but  unless  we 
have  projected  a  velvet  soul  into  the  community  and  charged 
it  with  the  power  which  such  a  soul  has,  we  have  done  next 
to  nothing.  "I  hope  you  will  have  a  good  time,  son,"  said 
a  mother  to  her  boy,  starting  out  to  a  party.  "Thank  you, 
mother,  I  always  do,  for  I  take  it  with  me."  That's  the 
great,  big,  simple  secret.  It  tells  what  kind  of  a  spirit  you 
can  have  in  a  community:  the  kind  you  carry  into  it.  Re- 
member, you  are  a  center,  potent  and  wide  in  influence, 
beyond  all  possible  estimate.  You  have  thought  forces 
resident  in  you  able,  like  a  Zeppelin,  to  spread  unseen  a 
reign  of  terror,  or  able  to  flood  the  world  with  sweetness 
and  life.  A  velvet  soul  is  your  greatest  contribution  to 
help  the  cause  of  smooth  living. 

There  are  certain  personal  reactions  which  result  from 
velvet  living. 

It  brings  composure  and  control  to  the  mental  faculties. 
"Better  is  he  that  keepeth  his  spirit  than  he  that  taketh  a 
city,"  is  not  only  wisdom,  but  it  is  power.  It  spells  a  clear 
head,  a  sane  judgment,  a  sweet  stomach  and  a  good  diges- 
tion. There  is  no  surer  way  to  inharmony  in  our  members 
than  our  tendency  to  blow  up  every  time  we  are  crossed  or 
annoyed.  Nor  is  there  anything  so  generally  distressing  as 
our  failure  to  hold  a  mental  oomSposure  when  we  are  con- 
fronted by  thoughts  and  problems  which  spell  discord.  If 
we  can  sit  on  the  throne  and  rule  when  the  throne  shakes 
beneath  us,  we  are  not  easily  unseated. 

Again  the  charitable  view  becomes  the  natural  bent  of  a 
velvet  soul.  We  are  apt  to  be  creatures  of  impulse.  The 
tongue  is  a  small  member,  but  St.  James  made  a  very 
complete  statement  of  its  power.  A  bit  of  honey  is  so 
much  more  palatable  to  it  than  a  touch  of  quinine.     If 


82  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

we  would  only  plan  to  hold  the  thought  that  the  hasty  word 
was  as  quinine,  which  we  had  taken  on  it,  and  the  just, 
the  generous,  the  kindly  was  honey  tipped,  it  might  help 
to  bring  both  the  first  fruit  and  the  final  grace  of  a  velvet 
soul. 

It  is  the  further  privilege  of  such  a  life  to  have  both 
insight  and  entrance  into  lives  which  have  been  labeled 
hardened  or  hopeless  by  the  world.  When  we  have  come  to 
realize  an  Infinite  Tenderness  brooding  over  us,  and  know 
that  however  hard  the  way,  we  have  made  it  so;  when  we 
sense  that  we  can  lift  the  rock  and  find  Him,  cleave  the 
stone  and  He  is  there;  then  we  know  that  what  we  term 
indifference  of  Providence  is  but  blindness  of  perception. 
It  is  evident  that  our  hope  of  such  a  realization  lies  in  the 
posesssion  of  a  gentle,  generous  spirit. 

We  see  the  Master  Jesus  walking  the  earth  to  show  men 
the  Father  and  revealing  a  soul  so  soothing  in  its  touch,  so 
soft  in  its  blows  of  rebuke,  so  gentle  and  yielding,  yet 
withal  so  firm  and  strong  and  sure,  that  even  the  winds 
obey  His  will.  We  see  how  by  this  calm  and  kindly  spirit 
the  atmosphere  of  the  world  of  His  day  changed  from 
badness  to  goodness,  from  discord  to  peace,  and  we  know 
here  is  the  evidence  that  smooth  living  does  not  spell  soft- 
ness and  decay,  but  vigor,  progress,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

A  velvet  soul  is  just  a  citizen  of  the  kingdom,  one  who 
has  tasted  the  real  values  and  has  entered  into  a  life  which 
is  at  once  useful  and  beautiful.  He  has  laid  hold  of  true 
serenity  and  can  move  successfully  amid  every  irritation, 
annoyance,  crisis  or  calamity.  The  reaction  to  such  a  soul 
is  awesome.  He  or  she  has  developed  an  asset  which  causes 
as  much  awe  as  the  mention  of  mere  money  does  with  a 
certain  type  of  niind.  And  the  ability  latent  here  is  the 
power  to  silently  but  surely  tap  all  of  the  hidden  energies. 


CHAPTER  ELEVEN 

OHN  FISKE,  the  great  scientist,  saw  the  mental 
and  spiritual  evolution  of  man  as  a  parallel  to 
his  physical  growth.  Just  as  man  has  come  up 
from  lower  forms  of  bodily  existence  in  accord- 
ance with  the  laws  of  nature,  so  he  sees  that 
day  when  all  of  the  ape  and  tiger  in  man  shall  have  dis- 
appeared. And  he  prophesies  that  in  the  evolution  of 
Humanity  the  divine  spark  may  acquire  power  over  material 
conditions  that  man  may  here  upon  this  earth  survive  and 
endure  forever. 

We  are  possibly  now  entering  the  last  era  of  the  ape 
and  tiger  in  man.  Wars  may  flare  forth  somewhat,  but  it 
will  be  the  dying  embers.  Already  the  race  rises  in  deep 
contrition  and  great  longing.  As  never  before  we  seek  a 
m^ental  and  spiritual  unfoldment  that  shall  give  us  control 
over  the  animal  tendencies  and  banish  them  forever  to  their 
limbo  of  barbarism.  We  cannot  undo  what  has  been  done, 
but  time  is  kind  and  will  lead  us  into  a  new  day.  Revelation 
has  not  ceased.  Each  day  is  a  fresh  page  in  God's  Book  of 
Life.  So  we  have  not  the  past  to  keep  us  checkmated,  but 
we  have  a  future  beckoning  us  to  a  better  and  diviner  day. 

Christ  has  become  to  us  the  revelation  of  our  own  pos- 
sible divine  selves.  He  is  the  Spark  which  shall  grow  until 
the  Light  of  God  fully  shines  in  every  soul.  Through  our 
mental  and  spiritual  unfoldment  in  terms  of  His  spirit  of 
life  a  new  humanity  will  evolve  and  bring  us  into  the  new 
day  of  which  our  poets  and  prophets  ever  dream.  But 
we  are  not  here  to  dream  or  long  for  it,  but  we  are  here 
for  growth.     The  evolutionary  urge  is  still  in  us.     It  now 


84  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

has  for  its  labors  not  a  better  body,  but  a  greater  mind, 
such  as  was  in  Christ,  a  diviner  spirit  which  will  make  us 
more  than  Masters. 

The  primary  operation  of  the  law  of  unfoldment  is  the 
stern  fact  of  capacity  or  ability  extirpated  by  disuse.  That 
is,  use  or  lose.  Everywhere  in  the  physical  evolution  we 
have  manifold  illustrations  of  this.  The  strength  of  muscles 
or  sinew  depends  upon  exercise.  The  fish  in  the  Mammoth 
Cave,  having  no  use  for  their  eyes,  lose  them.  Undoubtedly 
our  own  bodies  carry  around  remains  of  disused  organs. 
Maybe  that  little  vermiform  appendix  is  just  such  a  vestige, 
which  is  very  fine  not  to  have,  the  doctors  are  always  ready 
to  assure  us.  The  same  fact  runs  through  all  the  phases 
of  our  lives.  Faculties,  arts,  gifts  of  mind  and  spirit  must 
be  used  or  the  grace  and  skill  goes  from  us. 

The  positive  side  of  this  principle  is  our  chief  concern. 
We  must  practice  seeing  and  using  the  hidden  energies 
within  us.  The  more  we  discern  the  ability  within  ourselves 
and  others,  the  more  light  of  Truth  shines  on  all  our  affairs 
and  problems.  To  have  more  light  we  must  use  what  we 
have.  We  develop,  unfold  by  seeing,  then  by  using  these 
diviner  graces  of  mind  and  spirit.  A  lady  fluttered  up  to 
a  violinist  after  his  wonderful  work.  "Ah,  sir,  it  was  so 
wonderful!  so  heavenly!  so  divine!  I  would  give  half  my 
life  to  play  as  you  do."  "That  is  what  I  have  done, 
Madame — given  half  my  life  to  play  as  I  do." 

So  many  people  who  are  in  the  primary  grades  of 
spiritual  principles,  of  ri^t  thinking,  feel  very  much 
grieved  that  they  cannot  achieve  great  results.  They  forget 
they  have  not  undergone  great  disciplines.  When  they  have 
given  half  their  lives  to  touching  the  harp-strings  of  the 
mind  they  can  play  their  lives  as  harmonies  and  symphonies. 

If  you  see  the  Christ-power  but  do  not  use  it,  you  are 
like  a  man  looking  as  a  spectator,  and  you  must  remain 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  85 


so  until  you  become  a  participator.  So  many  people  are 
soft  and  flabby  in  soul  because  they  never  give  themselves 
any  spiritual  exercise.  But  we  are  learning  today  this 
simple  fact,  that  we  must  pass  from  Fact-Truth  to  Act- 
Truth.  That  is,  the  mere  contemplation  of  spiritual  prin- 
ciples will  never  get  you  anywhere.  The  operation  of 
spiritual  principles  is  putting  a  backbone  in  your  soul, 
where  you  had  a  wishbone. 

Jesus  used  the  parable  of  the  talents  to  this  very  end. 
God  has  given  of  His  divine  largess  to  us  all.  We  can 
double,  treble,  magnify,  glorify,  or  we  can  coddle,  fondle, 
petrify  and  nullify  the  Light  of  Truth  which  is  in  us.  The 
light  in  us  can  be  hidden  under  a  bushel,  or  it  can  be  a 
beacon  of  blessing. 

There  is  one  way  to  double  trouble,  and  that  is  to  be 
unprepared  to  meet  it.  There  is  one  way  to  sink  hardship 
in  the  ocean  of  experience,  and  that  is  to  send  a  well- 
directed  shot  from  a  dynamic,  vibrant  soul.  There  is  not 
a  problem  you  face,  not  a  difficulty  you  must  meet,  not  a 
crisis  confronting  you  but  can  be  met  if  you  daily  enlarge 
your  diviner  powers.  Truth,  the  Christ-mind  of  understand- 
ing, does  not  lead  you  into  mistakes  or  failures.  It  leads 
you  from  them,  knowing  them  for  what  they  are. 

So  use  the  spark,  fan  its  flame,  let  the  light  shine. 
Gain,  grow,  glow  and  see  how  life  will  unfold  in  power, 
penetration,  possession. 

The  law  of  unfoldment  further  demands  response  to 
every  higher  influence.  Every  species  of  present  life  owes 
its  existence  to  its  conformity  to  environment.  Failure  to 
adapt  itself  has  meant  extinction.  Marvelous  are  the  ways 
in  which  nature  has  aided  and  abetted  every  form  which 
would  conform.  It  made  possible  fins  instead  of  feet  for 
seals,  whales  and  manatees.  It  gave  wings  to  others  and 
protective  colorations  to  many  birds  and  animals.     Every 


86  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

adaptation   of  life  to   its  environment   has   meant   its   per- 
petuation. 

In  the  spiritual  evolution  of  man  the  law  works  in 
opposite  direction.  He  is  not  to  be  conformed  to  this 
world,  but  transformed  by  renewal  of  mind.  Renewal  of 
mind  is  open-mindedness,  sensitiveness  to  every  progressive 
urge.  It  means  every  environment  of  light,  revelation, 
growth  is  the  means  of  development. 

The  spirit  of  today  is  not  that  of  looking  backward,  but 
peering  forward.  All  our  most  vital  interest  is  in  psychic 
phenomena,  what  lies  beyond  death.  The  same  spirit  pos- 
sesses us  in  other  directions.  We  are  seeking  a  new  heaven 
and  a  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness.  We  do 
not  talk  of  the  good  old  times,  but  we  are  ready  for  the 
better  new  times.  Once  we  prized  the  traditional,  now  we 
cherish  the  evolutional.  We  want,  not  to  back  up  or  bolster 
up  our  civilization  by  ancient  citation,  but  we  want  to  bring 
it  into  the  providence  of  a  friendly  future. 

If  you  would  unfold  higher  powers  you  must  be  sus- 
ceptible to  higher  ideas.  You  must  cease  timidity  in  face 
of  a  truth  which  is  unusual.  If  we  had  told  Franklin  to 
quit  fooling  with  lightning  v/e  would  never  have  had  elec- 
tricity. If  the  world  had  told  Robert  Fulton  to  quit  boiling 
water  to  make  a  boat  go,  we  would  never  have  been  globe- 
trotters. So  in  the  realm  of  mind  and  spirit,  if  you  are 
afraid  of  new  ideas,  new  ways — which  are  coming — you  are 
not  conforming  to  your  world  and  must  drop  out  of  the  pro- 
cession. As  for  me,  I  am  going  to  transform  by  renewing 
my  mind.  With  Emerson,  I  will  change  my  mind  every 
day  if  necessary,  and  dare  to  think  a  bolder,  bigger  thought 
tomorrow. 

Once  they  burned  men  for  heresy.  Now  they  simply 
blister  them  with  cruel  and  unjust  criticism.  But  boiled  in 
oil  or  blistered  in  bitter  words,  it  matters  not;  with  Paul, 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  87 

I  am  going  to  press  on,  unfold,  go  from  glory  to  glory  until 
I  bring  forth  my  divinest  self,  my  hidden  energies  which 
give  me  ability  and  plenty. 

The  law  of  unfoldment  demands  complete  faith  in  the 
untapped  reservoir  of  your  possible  powers.  There  is  an 
ebb  and  flow  of  mental  power  in  creative  work,  if  you 
operate  merely  from  the  conscious  side.  You  will  often 
only  create  when  the  mood  is  just  right.  Much  of  the 
finest  work  in  this  fashion.  But  this  mood  is  the 
fitful  outcrop  of  an  abiding  ability  in  you,  and  if  under 
the  law  of  unfoldment  you  must  seek  its  expressions,  I 
advise  you  to  continue  this  chapter  by  reading  Prof.  William 
James'  "Hidden  Energies  of  Man."  You  will  note  at 
greater  length  than  I  can  give  how  you  can  unfold  the 
super-powers  inherent  within  you. 

Then  there  is  reliance  upon  what  we  call  the  sub- 
conscious processes.  You  can  develop  the  habit  of  sleeping 
upon  matters,  problems  and  plans.  That  is,  you  can  lodge 
and  leave  a  matter  in  your  sub-conscious  mind  to  be  worked 
out.  If  you  rely  upon  this  procedure,  you  will  marvel  at 
your  gains  in  creative  ability.  The  very  fact  that  we  have 
had  prodigies  among  children  before  their  conscious  minds 
could  come  into  constructive  power  is  proof  of  the  vast 
innate  abilities  of  the  sub-conscious.  Think  of  Mozart 
playing  the  piano  at  three  years  of  age  and  composing  at 
eight.  Then  there  was  Zerah  Coburn,  the  mathematical 
expert  of  eight  years  of  age.  There  are  numerous  other 
examples,  but  they  all  point  to  the  obtruding  of  the  sub- 
conscious power,  which  is  the  source  of  all  ability  and 
genius.  The  exceptional  evidence  only  emphasizes  a  pos- 
sible universal  procedure.  Lodge  and  leave  things  in  the 
sub-conscious  and  learn  how  to  create  in  an  unusual  degree. 

Finally,  recognize  the  conquering  power  of  self-confi- 
dence. Never  doubt  that  you  have  ability.  Never  suggest 
a    lack    to    yourself    or    confess    a    weakness    to    anoljher. 


88  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

Realize  that  you  are  untapped  reservoirs,  full  of  power 
and  use.  "If  we  choose  to  be  no  more  than  clods  of 
clay,  then  we  shall  be  used  as  clods  of  clay  for  braver 
feet,"  is  the  way  Marie  Corelli  challenges  your  self-confi- 
dence. Of  course  this  is  not  conscious  egotism.  Conceit 
is  insufferable  and  its  own  destroyer.  If  we  will  always 
remember  that  we  do  much  when  we  are  put  to  it.  We  show 
no  lack  of  confidence  when  we  are  challenged  by  an  unavoid- 
able task.  At  such  times  we  become  surcharged  and  we 
marshal  all  of  our  forces  for  the  big  drive.  This  is  a  fact 
which  we  forget  or  ignore.  That  we  prove  what  we  can  do 
when  we  have  to  must  be  made  the  basis  of  the  usual 
method.  We  are  all  inclined  to  the  line  of  least  resistance. 
But  knowing  that  you  are  capable  of  immeasurable  ability, 
habituate  yourself  to  a  "woe  me,  if  I  fail  of  the  divine 
intention!" 

Creative  ability  has  three  everyday  aspects:  the  plodder, 
the  pusher,  the  perfecter. 


CHAPTER  TWELVE 

Ci)e  Secret  of  d^riginalitj* 

HE  creative  faculty  in  the  individual  is  the  only 
key  to  open  all  the  doors  of  ability  and  plenty. 
Until  we  trust  our  inherent  powers  and  make 
the  imperative  demand  for  the  hidden  energies 
to  deliver  first-hand  material,  we  remain 
mediocre.  We  can  never  create  anything  of  lasting  value 
or  enduring  satisfaction  until  we  can  uncover  the  streak  of 
forgotten  gold  which  seams  our  souls. 

The  world  passes  through  eras  when  it  produces  little, 
if  anything,  that  is  original.  These  periods  are  marked  by 
clever  imitators  and  skillful  plagairists.  But  these  copy- 
book ages  never  leave  a  mark  in  history.  They  pass  away 
and  are  gone  from  the  mind  and  memory  of  man.  The 
shades  of  geniuses  hover  sad  and  outraged  over  a  shoddy 
world.  None  suffer  more  than  the  musical  composers,  who 
must  endure  the  barbaric  syncopation  of  their  classics.  This 
is  a  sample  of  what  failure  to  call  forth  the  original  spirit 
brings  to  our  time. 

So  long  as  Japan  was  an  isolated  empire,  her  people 
were  great.  Their  art  of  lacquer,  their  remarkable  natur- 
alism in  painting,  the  weird  reaches  of  their  ceramics,  their 
metal  craftmanship,  were  all  the  perfect  flower  of  their  own 
genius.  Today  they  have  degenerated  into  a  race  of  un- 
scrupulous imitators. 

All  this  is  an  appeal  by  the  warnings  of  history,  for  the 
culture  of  originality.  But  to  begin  with,  what  is  origin- 
ality? 

Originality  is  the  disposition  and  the  courage  to  trust 
your  own  thought,  your  own  expression  and  to  know  as  it 
is  true  for  you  so  it  is  true  for  the  world.     It  leaves  no 


90  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

place  for  timidity.  You  must  believe  and  know  that  you 
can  do  a  thing  in  a  way  to  claim  recognition  and  appreci- 
ation. The  power  of  silent  demand  will  bring  forth  your 
product  in  lines  of  excellence  and  worth. 

Emerson  says,  "In  every  work  of  genius  we  recognize 
our  own  rejected  thoughts;  they  come  back  to  us  with  a 
certain,  alienated  majesty."  The  one  v/ho  uttered  them 
merely  had  the  faith  and  courage  to  lift  up  his  voice.  So 
he  was  given  the  acclaim  which  was  also  ours.  Sometimes 
one  comes  along  who  discovers  us  to  ourselves.  He  knows 
we  have  a  treasure  chest  of  noble  thoughts  and  sweet  fancies. 
He  can  cause  us  to  bring  forth  the  spirit-spun  fabric  of  a 
lofty  dream.  He  can  extract  the  gems  of  Divine  Wisdom 
which  we  have  laid  away.  What  a  brilliant  array  they  be- 
come in  the  setting  of  his  understanding  sympathy.  Would 
that  we  had  Christopher  Columbuses  enough  to  come  to 
the  virgin  shores  of  all  these  empires  of  our  human  minds. 

Our  self-discovery  is  better.  The  soul's  Declaration  of 
Independence,  as  we  may  call  the  force  of  originality, 
should  arm  us  to  win  with  our  own  inherent  worth.  There 
is  a  divine  consciousness  within  which  holds  unfathomed 
resource.  Relying  upon  it,  bravely  and  resolutely,  will 
bring  our  wares  to  market.  The  world  is  a  hard  customer 
but  it  cannot  withstand  the  brilliance  of  that  which  is  alto- 
gether new  and  original.  If  your  demand  upon  yourself 
is  big  enough  and  your  dare  for  your  idea  is  indifferently 
bold  enough,  the  world  will  beat  upon  your  back  door  for 
a  crust  of  your  favor. 

So  we  need  to  believe  that  our  thought  is  not  too  be 
despised  or  rejected  simply  because  it  may  not  conform  to 
certain  rhetorical  standards.  Genius  and  grammar  have 
often  been  sworn  enemies.  At  least  genius  spurns  the  petty 
in  speech,  to  make  its  thought  great.  If  you  have  on  over- 
mastering thought,  a  burning  idea,  have  confidence  in  it. 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  91 

Give  it  utterance.  It  may  be  the  word  for  history.  Even 
crude,  unlettered  men  have  changed  empires  by  a  phrase. 
The  Hall  of  Fame  may  be  any  country  lane  where  boys 
play  and  portray  their  inborn  aptitudes.  We  have  enough 
potential  genius  among  our  youth  to  make  a  new  heaven 
and  a  new  earth.  We  ourselves  could  be  miracle  workers 
if  we  called  forth  the  gifts  which  slumber  in  the  soul. 

But  we  have  the  disposition  today  to  think  we  can 
only  develop  certain  gifts  by  the  use  of  props;  rigid  observ- 
ance of  arbitrary  forms. 

1.  In  play  writing,  people  believe  that  everything  de- 
pends upon  knowledge  of  dramatic  structure.  I  have  studied 
Freytag  and  the  best  authorities.  I  wrote  a  successful  play 
before  I  did  so.  However  my  play  would  not  be  according 
to  Freytag.  People  enjoy  it  and  it  has  all  the  elements  of 
dramatic  action.  Some  of  the  truly  great  dramas  have  out- 
raged every  rule  of  so  called  technique.  The  dramatist  had 
a  big,  gripping  theme  of  human  interest.  He  knew  how  to 
portray  it  through  characters  to  whom  he  gave  form,  feel- 
ing, speech  and  action.  So  the  Indwelling  Spirit  alone 
does  the  work  here. 

2.  Today  we  have  numberless  courses  in  short-story 
writing.  Even  our  colleges  have  made  a  place  for  it.  In 
these,  the  story  is  dissected  and  its  structure  is  analyzed. 
Then  the  student  is  told  how  to  build  a  story  according  to 
the  rules.  But  where  did  the  first  great  story  teller  get  his 
rules?  To  whom  did  0.  Henry  go  for  the  right  way  to  write 
his  modern  popular  classics?  He  went  within  and  drew 
from  the  creative  power  to  see  and  feel  the  creatures  of  his 
fancy  as  real  as  those  about  him  in  the  flesh.  Stories,  great 
stories,  are  created,  not  simply  built.  There  is  only  one 
secret,  the  power  to  draw  upon  the  gift  within  to  the  full. 

3.  Preachers  are  raised  up  for  our  pulpits  and  are  pre 
pared  and  trained  to  write  and  deliver  sermons.    There  are 


92  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

extensive  courses  in  homiletics,  the  art  of  preaching.  But  of 
what  use  is  it  all  except  to  be  boresome  and  wearisome,  when 
they  have  nothing  to  say.  Being  to  the  manner  born,  1  can 
testify  that  a  man  will  throw  his  homiletics  to  the  winds 
when  mind  and  soul  are  afire  with  Heavenly  Wisdom.  An 
audience  wants  inspiration,  courage,  faith  rather  than  firstly, 
secondly  and  thirdly.  To  give  them  food,  not  courses,  to 
furnish  the  bread  of  life,  is  the  one  aim  and  end  of  all  true 
preaching. 

All  of  this  points  to  the  one  moral  and  applies  to  all 
activity,  fire  away  with  both  barrels  in  your  way. 

Originality  rests  upon  certain  attitudes  of  mind  and 
spirit. 

Courage  and  fearless  disregard  for  all  brow  beating  con- 
ventionalisms is  to  be  counseled.  The  boy  is  the  father  of 
the  man  of  originality.  Study  a  boy.  See  how,  as  Emerson 
says,  he  gives  independent,  genuine  verdict  of  persons  and 
things.  He  is  fearless.  He  has  faith  in  his  own  opinions. 
He  dares  to  state  them  in  his  own  dogmatic  way.  His  charm 
is  his  naive  scorn  for  standards.  He  is  not  easily  squelched, 
nor  is  it  fair  to  walk  rough  shod  over  this  first  flowering  of 
his  Divine  Ego.  God  is  letting  the  things  which  furnish 
wings  to  his  genius  have  a  tryout.  "Be  careful  with  the 
boy.  You  are  dealing  with  soul  stuff,"  aye,  the  soul  stuff 
of  originality. 

"Trust  yourself,"  again  urges  Emerson.  It  is  not  original 
to  quote  but  I  do  this  to  show  you  the  way  a  first  hand  soul 
regards  this  one  talisman.  He  made  his  choice  early  in 
manhood.  He  cast  behind  him  all  conformity.  When  he 
was  back  to  the  Source  Within,  then,  he  began  to  be  the  sage. 
And  how  did  he  utter  his  innate  wisdom?  He  blurted  it 
out  in  classic  phrase  and  gave  a  Metaphysical  Scripture  to 
our  own  age.  He  becomes  the  clew  to  self-expression.  His 
challenge  to  dare  and  his  counsel  to  demand  your  own  and 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  93 

have  faith  in  it,  has  given  us  the  new  Philosophy,  the  Ap- 
plied Psychology  of  this  present  period.  Be  true  to  yourself 
and  trust  the  gift  within  you. 

There  are  no  rules  for  originality,  for  then  it  ceases  as 
such.  I  can,  however,  suggest  things  which  you  can  do  to 
help  discover  and  develop  faith  in  your  peculiar  gifts. 

It  is  well  to  meditate  and  commune  deeply  with  yourself. 
Get  into  the  silence.  Draw  apart  from  the  world  and  a  per- 
ception of  the  sensory.  Peer  down  deep  into  your  nature 
as  if  looking  down  a  well.  Make  this  a  practice  until  you 
are  able  to  see  the  spring  of  crystal  originality,  your  own 
aptitude.  It  will  happen  that  some  day  you  will  definitely 
know  what  you  can  do  differently  and  you  will  dare  to  do  it. 

Observe  life  in  your  own  way.  Get  at  the  soul  of  things. 
Never  stop  with  the  names  of  things.  These  are  merely  for 
identification.  The  soul  is  for  education.  This  penetrative 
power  will  help  you  to  discover  yourself.  You  may  be  the 
means  of  furnishing  some  invention  or  improvement  which 
is  valuable  to  industry  or  safety.  Watts  watched  a  tea-kettle 
and  leaped  from  that  to  the  steam  engine. 

A  lumberman  in  a  noble  forest  saw  so  many  feet  of 
lumber  for  the  happy  homes  of  men  and  women.  The 
artist  saw  there  the  corridors  of  time,  the  dim  reaches  of 
Eternal  Mystery.  He  painted  the  picture  which  adorns  the 
walls  of  the  State  Capitol  at  St.  Paul,  Minnesota.  The 
musician  saw  the  storm-strained  pines,  through  which  all 
the  elemental  symphonies  of  nature  surge,  as  trees  getting 
ready  to  be  violins!  And  the  philosopher  saw  the  mighty 
lesson  of  the  rectitude  and  love  of  God  evidenced  by  the 
straight  trunks  and  the  sweet,  singing  branches.  Thus  every 
original  gift  to  the  world  has  come  because  some  one  took 
notice  of  the  common  things  and  saw  in  them  potentialities 
of  blessing  and  power. 

Constantly  rely  upon  your  sub-conscious  powers.   Within 


94  CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE 

you  are  all  the  materials  out  of  which  poets,  musicians, 
writers,  inventors  and  every  profession,  are  made.  Your 
power  to  objectify  what  is  in  subjective  solution,  is  the  great 
need.  As  you  can  visualize,  materialize  and  express  what 
is  latent,  you  cause  your  original  powers  to  function  per- 
fectly. So  not  only  trust  your  sub-conscious  powers,  but 
talk  to  them.  Make  silent  and  insistent  demands.  It  is  a 
good  thing  to  place  an  order  with  your  inner  mind  and  then 
quietly  know  it  will  be  filled.  And  you  will  learn  to  know 
just  when  the  order  is  ready  for  delivery.  This  lesson  is 
written  for  you  in  this  fashion.  Under  pressure  of  a  multi- 
tude of  duties,  this  last  chapter  had  to  be  in  the  hands  of 
the  linotyper  at  a  certain  time.  That  time  was  set  and  so 
the  order  for  this  in  completeness  was  put  in.  And  I  went 
to  bed. 

As  I  have  written  this  on  the  following  morning,  the  full 
lesson  has  come  pouring  out  faster  than  my  pen  could  take 
it.  This  is  a  concrete  evidence  of  what  reliance  upon  the 
sub-conscious  will  do  for  your  original  powers.  You  come 
to  know  with  Emerson,  "Nothing  is  at  last  sacred  but  the 
integrity  of  your  own  mind." 

You  feed  the  fires  of  creative  ability  through  obedience 
to  every  uplift  of  soul.  God  breaks  through  our  coarser 
garments  of  sense  with  the  Divine  Fire.  Illumined  by  it  we 
behold  far  reaches  of  ability  for  us  to  ascend.  And  under 
this  high-born  inspiration  we  mount  up  to  the  unmeasured 
powers  within.  So  dare  to  obey  the  high  call.  Let  out 
that  surge  of  soul  in  some  concrete,  constructive  wo'k.  You 
can  become  increasingly  sensitive  to  the  finer  and  diviner  in 
this  way  and  there  will  be  no  limit  to  your  ability  and  hence 
to  the  sources  of  plenty. 

The  last  thing  to  observe  and  to  conserve  for  creative 
originality,  is  love  of  Truth.  Truth  is  the  all  unity  of  the 
mind.    Truth  is  the  great  recognition  that  all  men,  animals. 


CREATIVE  ABUNDANCE  95 

plants,  all  created  things  are  visible  expressions  of  Invisible. 
Presence,  God  in  all.  Now  the  further  you  penetrate  into 
the  nature  of  things,  the  more  you  become  absorbed  in  the 
revelations  of  Infinite  Life  in  infinite  expression.  And  you 
draw  from  this  the  final  knowledge  that  you  too  bear  the 
imprint  of  the  same  capacity.  So  you  dare  to  think,  to 
speak,  to  create. 

From  the  knowledge  that  I  am  an  instrument  through 
which  Creative  Intelligence  can  flow,  has  come  every  truly 
satisfying  achievement  in  life.  One  no  longer  hesitates  be- 
fore obstacles.  The  tremendous  odds  which  timid  men  see 
no  longer  exist.  But  armed  with  divine  assurance,  one 
opens  up  the  channels  for  the  free  flow  of  spirit.  And 
through  you  the  streams  of  Intelligence  flow  out  into  visible 
evidences  of  ability  and  plenty. 

Open  wide  the  gates  of  your  Being.  All  that  God  has  of 
abundance  is  at  hand.  Reposeful  assurance  that  it  can  flow 
to  you,  opens  the  gates.  This  knowledge  floods  your  facul- 
ties with  faith,  courage  and  knowledge.  The  tides  of  cre- 
ative power  raise  each  ability  to  superlative  power  and  you 
begin  to  achieve  beyond  all  standards  of  achievement.  In- 
deed in  this  knowledge  and  method  of  living,  I  assure  you 
there  is  not  only  unlimited  originality  but  also  super-genius. 
It  should  so  thrill  you  that  you  will  never  halt  with  con- 
fessions of  lack,  limitation  or  impotence  but  armed  with 
high  resolve,  call  forth  your  powers  and  do  differently  and 
splendidly  the  work  of  your  hands.  Ability  is  within  you. 
Plenty  will  come  to  you,  if  you  will  let  the  Creative  Intel- 
ligence completely  use  you. 


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